#but y'know. needs a lot more canon tweaking

[cherrymoonvol6]

ok nvm i'll elaborate right now

i think one of the many weird choices in the finale was to make belos possess raine out of all people. one, because it really comes out of the blue. when has belos ever shown any interest of raine? like, i'm sure he must be aware of raine's record of plotting against the establishment, but he never deals with them himself. instead he sends a plethora of other people to do it for him (darius, eberwolf, kikimora, terra). if anything, it is terra that has a bone to pick with them. and in a parallel work where raine got more to do, i believe terra and raine's dynamic would've been something really interesting to explore. kinda like the relationship between atreus and odin in GOW ragnarok, like this "okay i know you hate me and all that i stand for, but i see potential in you so i'll take you under my wing and prove to you that i am worth of your time and loyalty" kinda thing, which is a banger dynamic btw.

but the second part is that there are two way more attractive options. the first one, immediately on demand, is darius. ofc it would take some canon time of developing that dynamic between belos and darius (it pains me that it doesn't exist), but it would make sense that belos would keep a close eye on darius. after all, he was mentored and was a good friend of the previous golden guard, and it's implied in various scenes (mostly ASIAS) that he knows enough about hunter's "ancestors" to praise him when he doesn't follow orders, and ultimately play the long-con to betray belos. he may even be aware in some sense of belos killing the previous golden guard, or even the existence of the grimwalkers. in that case, it would make sense that belos would have built some resentment towards him that ultimately shows in the choice to possess, corrupt and kill his puppeteer-ed body. but then, there's an even better option here, and a character that belos has hide a long-time resentment against: lilith.

look, if belos remembers luz from all those years ago, then he abso-fucking-lutely remembers lilith as well. and in a sense you can interpret the actions in canon as him trying to exert his personal vendetta against her: keep her close in the emperor's coven, trying to get her sister to join and get branded with a sigil with the promise that he'll cure her from her curse, all this while knowing that she would eventually betray him and join luz's side. we know belos kept her close for a reason and he knows the extent of her abilities, her history and relationship with eda, and her weaknesses as well. belos possessing lilith, then, would not only be the definitive "fuck you" to her, but could've also been an effective way to provoke eda emotionally and lead her to abandon her hideout to confront him. and honestly, from the way belos acts in that scene in FTF, his reaction to finding the best candidate to possess would make so much more sense if it was lilith and not raine.

but like, aren't lilith and raine just... insanely similar characters in the show's narrative? both are figures of eda's past, who loved each other sincerely back in simpler times, and through plot-related actions (raine's reason is much better narratively though, IMO) abandoned eda and joined the opposing side, climbing the ranks through their powerful abilities until becoming important figures in the coven circle. trying to think about the things i'd change in canon to make raeda a better couple involve making them go through similar plot beats that eda and lilith have gone through: an emotional, powerful moment where raine has to choose between their position of power and eda's wellbeing, actual tension between them (resentment and guilt from eda's side, frustration and confusion from raine's side), situations where they are forced to colaborate and their chemistry can still come through but still their dynamic is permeated by those lingering wounds... like, all of those things are stuff that already happened in canon, between eda and lilith. there's even that moment in king's tide where eda has the same somber moment with raine and lilith before executing their sabotage:

to me, it event seems like lilith got a lot of attention and development with eda in S1 and early S2 and then her character got sidelined when raine started to appear, and simultaneously: how raine's backstory and conflict of interest with eda are pretty much an afterthought but they still get to be a key player in the plot through late S2 and S3. i'm really sorry that economic character construction has to work this way, but that's how it is: you don't get to give eda a sister and a significant other and then make those two characters the same one. you have to commit to just one and integrate all aspects onto them.

#toh critical #anti raeda #long post #i still really like the darius possession choice btw. mainly bc of my deranged 'darius was the evelyn to previous gg's caleb' theory #and because if hunter actually joins luz and co to fight belos #he'd be saving his REAL parent too #but y'know. needs a lot more canon tweaking #i find it so useless that lilith gets effectively puppeteer'ed at the beginning of FTF but then she's just ok later in the episode ??? why #and also btw i'd love to keep raine and drop lilith. i'm sorry sacrifices must be done #esp because all the juicy potential between raine and terra #raine looking at darius like 'don't look at me like that. you also had your mentor' #and darius being like 'i cannot overstate how radically different our mentorship was compared to yours' #i say this might make me like raeda more but truth is i'd be head over heels in love with the terra/raine dynamic. lmao #also IMAGINE elsewhere and elsewhen but building a luz/raine dynamic instead..... i want it so bad

[the-starry-seas]

You gotta tell me more about Whisper's problems. How bad could it *really* be for ne and Sol to be drinking buddies?

LOL well-

The biggest thing is, well, y'know. The kind of people who say "an army of child slaves sounds like the perfect way to solve problems" are probably the kind of people who dehumanise said army of child slaves. Jango straight up calls them livestock. Plus the whole barcode and CT numbers thing. Enough to give anyone issues when it's all they know! And that's not accounting for the extra trust issues coming from the fact that the Aces were betrayed by a clone from their own company.

Also I have a really incoherent set of thoughts about clones not having personal autonomy or the ability to say 'no', and the ways that can break them. And about how much worse that is for clones with touch aversion, like Whisper. And about how nonverbal episodes can make anything difficult, but are potentially lethal in a life-or-death situation. And how with emotions being all... fucky wucky, sometimes the only way to feel something is to get punched in the face. Kiss with a fist is better than none, etc etc.

(I also have a lot of thoughts about there being a different version of the clone chip that's installed with "live" programing, when sending a clone back to Kamino for reconditioning would take too much time. These chipped clones have to obey every order they're given, even if it would kill them to do so, and are forbidden from fighting back against anyone hurting them. I have even more thoughts about Whisper being threatened with a chip like that and being scared shitless because ne could never let the Aces endanger themselves to protect ner.)

This is entirely headcanon, but, Kaminoans are transphobic as hell when it comes to the clones. The army was made male on purpose and there's no reason for them to not stay that way. They hear about a clone changing up their gender and consider it a 'programming aberration', something tweaked in the DNA that makes the clone a little cuckoo for cocoa puffs in comparison to the 'real' soldiers. For one thing, Whisper is not fond of being called an aberration. And apart from the effect transphobia has on a kid, it's just stressful to wonder what's enough to get you taken from your family.

But that's not ner only aberration, as far as the Kaminoans are concerned! Or would be concerned, if they knew that Whisper was autistic. Which also brings a whole new set of Shit Whisper Doesn't Want To Deal With. I'm ready to kill someone with my bare hands like a gorilla after 15 minutes in a Wal-mart supercentre, and Whisper spent ner entire life in either a multi-million-people city or a war zone. Considering ne has no idea what a coping mechanism is (presumably some kind of machinery), is it really any surprise that ne has a load of emotional disregulation and anger issues?

The Aces did a lot to protect Ember and keep his deafness a secret. An unintentional side effect of that is that he sees his deafness as a Problem that would get them all killed if anyone figures it out. Did the Aces try to accommodate Whisper's own disability and accidentally teach ner the same thing? Does Whisper think there's something wrong in ner brain, and that ne needs to be fixed to be normal so ne's no longer a problem that ner family has to keep covered up? Yep. It sucks when your family teaches you shame, especially when they never meant to.

Also Whisper is asexual and demiromantic so like. That is also very alienating when you realise that you're not physically capable of feeling something that everyone else considers a defining trait of being human. Which also definitely ties back into the whole angle of Kaminoan dehumanisation, and the whole "ah fuck gotta fix the brain to be normal" thought pattern.

But the big thing is the child murder! In canon, one of the Cuy'val Dar had a fight ring, and multiple cadets died from their injuries. Whisper got kicked into the fight ring when ne was seven years old. Ner first time there, ne ended up killing ner opponent. And ne was efficient enough about it that Priest kept bringing ner back for more fights. Killing other cadets (some of them younger than ner) since childhood has, what's the phrase... deeply fucked ner up.

There's also the fact that ne internalises everything instead of relying on ner family for help or support. Everything is ner fault, therefore ne has to fix it all on ner own, too. It's like a damage multiplier against ner emotional state. The other Aces don't even know about the fight club thing, ne told them it was intensive training for consideration for an ARC program. That's gonna be a fustercluck.

#putting under a readmore cause it's kinda long #and also for mentions of dehumanisation and lack of autonomy. transphobia. internalised ableism and acephobia. child murder. #Just Clone Things™ #aroace agender autistic character experience surely bears no resemblance to aroace agender autistic writer experience *nervous sweating* #*puts the worst parts of growing up closeted and undiagnosed in a blender* *makes an OC out of it* #ct whisper

[cathalbravecog]

one thing i've been trying to wrap my head around is: if hired help is still canon, but everything else relating to it is not then. what happened to the C.J?? does he just not exist? and for that matter where the heck Elvis? and does the witness stand-in still exist? idk is there a statement i'm missing?

IM TRYING TO WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THIS TOO!! was cj ever canon in ttcc now as of the recent things?? what about winston who mentions him? is that part of the lore gonna be changed or is it gonna be like "he did leave and he is canon, just not how the old comics showed it"

literally in the first panels of hired help break the law is mentioned by name and we see elvis' missing poster but in my opinion almost everything seems to be leading to the clash crew trying to move on from this story possibly?

they possibly didn't wanna edit things out from the comic but since litigation team is still there i guess that hired help is still canon, but to be taken with a grain of salt? like aside from a meeting of two minds we only have 2 cog lore comics that are still deemed as canon and a meeting of two minds is

i believe ther never was a statement about this, aside from the article that mentions the writing team working on a complete re-write for the main taskline and also just.. the story in general and acknowledging how hard to access it is now and how confusing things have gotten

unfortunately with that it's in an even more confusing state now, so honestly it's just... about the wait until any other statements are put out or until any writing updates are released! i wish this was communicated a bit better but again i understand the crew is busy with mix and match and hammerspace currently. still, wish this was communicated better. unless i too, have missed a discord statement...?

it's a bit of a nightmare right now trying to just. solve what's currently canon and what's not. like we know for sure what's visible in game right now with the managers and a meeting of two minds and at least the april toons thomas dialogue stuff is canon (though with this i'd assume some minor old stuff thomas talks about may be tweaked...? again i have a re-read in order)

but anything to do with break the law and diane joining the company and cj leaving is questionable currently. which is... very confusing seeing that it's mentioned several times in hired help. i kinda analyzed that comic for myself just yesterday . especially this stands out

atticus wing is literally mentioned by name here and also the whole affect it had on cog insurance companies (and courtney and barry) is mentioned too. aside from thomas i don't believe we ever saw the full effect that atticus' death had on the cog world which always rubbed me the wrong way, since it was supposed to be kinda a big deal and now it's being put under the rug. and yet atticus still haunts so many parts of the story after. so like

(i think about this a lot and a part of my hc's ive been working on would rewrite atticus' death to have a bit more of an impact, while explaining how exactly he died and couldn't be repaired, while cogs who've gone through worse literally in-game through gags are rebuilt and repaired. though i'd need to re-read and re-watch old things for that, it's been a while... plus i've never seen actual content from the events this took place in myself, i wasn't playing toontown at the time, not even ttr!) uaurgh well done character in an admittedly (yet passionately put together) somewhat messy story . again i need to say this each time i criticize this i love the work staff does but i think it's only fair i get to be honest with my thoughts on these things as a fan. we're all just people here y'know

current state? i dunno. still fun to speculate things though. apologies for my thoughts being scrambled and if i forgot things, i didn't mean this one to be so long

#[answered]

[daxieoclock]

heh... this would be a perfect time to ask... what's the plot of your ffxv rewrite? how different is it from the original, y'know? i'd love to hear what you have planned for any characters in particular, like prompto... or if you plan on giving some characters more importance? i hope those questions are good :)

FUCK YEAH they're great questions thank u thank you

so primarily the big conceit behind this au is to focus in on a unifying theme, and tweaking the plot in order to align to that theme rather than bouncing all over the place the way canon does. in this case, our theme is monarchy itself, exploring concepts of sovereignty and linage on every level, with the inevitable conclusion being, to put it in a gauche way: "monarchy bad, actually"

the magic system in the au is focused on royal blood, with nearly all magic tied to the royal lineage of the different kingdoms, and bestowed beyond royal blood only to those who swear a binding oath to a royal, with their powers conditional on maintaining that oath. there's a lot of other little changes i made to the Primals / pantheon and Armiger and stuff like that, in order to just like. clear up a lot of the weird inconsistent vagueness and hand-waving in canon. but the biggest change by far is to Ardyn

Ardyn, in the au, is an immortal pedigree-obsessed weirdo whose primary plan is to prune the "impure" bloodlines in Lucis and Nifelhiem, while basically forcing Noctis and Lunafreya (who are very good friends and maybe are romantically interested in each other but having their autonomy revoked in this way is deeply fucked up) to get married and have kids, uniting their own lineages, while he slaughters a bunch of people and forcibly unites all nations under one banner like the good old days when he was king.

his continued existence is literally tied to the kingdoms, and he is defeated only when the Emperor of Nifelhiem is killed, and Noctis and Lunafreya both renounce their titles and ritualistically destroy the thrones of their respective kingdoms.

Cor also has a hugely different and important role, becoming Noctis's active proxy-father because Regis is kind of a neglectful piece of shit. He's the one who ends up dying in Tennabrae when Ardyn reveals himself as the puppeteer, and Noctis's connection to him and his late commonborn mother (in this au, Noct has a ton of siblings and is a bastard child, last in line for the throne, thus why he's a rebellious punk being shipped off to another kingdom for a political marriage) is what eventually leads him to decide to relinquish his position as king for the betterment of his people.

As for Prompto! His whole dealio is pretty similar to canon, that he's the end result of a ton of fucked-up experiments by Nifelhiem. In this case though, the experiments were an attempt to artificially create proxy royal blood, implied to be Ardyn's initiative.

Oh, and Prompto's friendship with Noct gets way way more developed.

(this is the first time Noct is able to summon the armiger after Cor dies)

And his foil with Aranea is emphasized as well! cause in the AU, she's basically a former pirate who submitted to becoming a magitek soldier, which involved a lot of fucked up experiments. So Prompto, as soon as he hears this, is immediately like "oh shit big sister located" kdjfbgjhb

(tw for implied mutilation)

like tbh prompto's characterization is kind of aces in canon ffxv, so there's not a lot I need to change. Ep Prompto is probably the best part of the game and im still so mad it's relegated to DLC, I will never shut up about that.

anyway i literally wrote like a 50 page something infodump to @triskaidekaphilist over discord so i've got So Much Fucking Content djhgfbjhb as long as you like messy summaries and beta dialogue

#ask to tag #ffxv #final fantasy xv #i refuse to tag the characters sorry djfhbghj

[ramblyngrobyn]

Juvenile (Pkmn/Prsk crossover) Prologue notes extended

Okay! So! This is the start of a little big something I've been sitting on for a while. For the last several months (since at least April 2023) I've been occasionally poking at this ever-expanding AU in my phone's notes, adding ideas for story beats and things to do with the characters and world. I always figured I wouldn't actually turn this into a real thing and figured I'd just keep it to my own imagination but the brainworms eventually won, so here I am!

Uh, so I don't know how "good" this is gonna be? Hell even this first chapter I'm already worried that maybe I tried to do too much at once. As I was writing a lot of extra ideas hit me for how I could better build this as a solid foundation of the rest of the story. I wanted every scene to like, matter, yknow? It might just straight up be too long! But any time I considered cutting a scene just to make things more brief I was like "no, no, I need that part". I could have also cut it into multiple chapters but it's the same amount of content so like, what would the point be. If you're wondering, the break points for a 3-chapter version of this would have been Mafuyu showing up at Kanade's place and Kanade seeing the others off at the train station.

Right off the bat, the prologue is a bit different tonally and I wanna talk about that. There's not a super high saturation of Pokemon stuff in this opening! I hope that isn't too weird considering this is a Pokemon AU! I wanted to ease Kanade into it before dropping her in the deep end for the last chunk. When the next chapter hits, we’ll be in full on Poke-mode. This chapter also has a handful of more serious moments, which is par for the course since y'know, Niigo. I actually cut out or edited some bleaker moments because I thought they felt out of place, lol. It's gonna get a lot more consistently lighthearted from here, I promise! (Mostly!)

I have the broad strokes of this story outlined, both in written notes and a map that I scribbled out. I don't have all the details in-between locked in, I'm being flexible there, but I know where I want this to go and generally speaking what I want to do with the whole cast.

I'm not aiming for anything super profound with this, and I have no practical experience in long-form storytelling. Hopefully that doesn't bite me in the butt too hard. Going forward, some chapters might end up being mostly choreographed action, some might be the characters sitting around talking for a few thousand words. At the end of the day, this is just me having fun with my favorite characters in one of my favorite fictional words. I'm trying to not think so hard that I corner myself.

On that note, I think it's worth noting up front that this is very much my version of these characters in my version of Unova. Not in a "my fic don't like don't read" kind of way but like... you might not agree with every choice?

For the most part character origins will have to be built from the ground up, though as you can see from this first chapter I've tried to keep bits and pieces from canon that I think naturally fit. Niigo's origin story is honestly pretty easy to write and intuit around considering they first met remotely. And while I did do a lot of expositing in this opening I think that instead of every character getting an airtight, perfectly laid out backstory, I'll leave some things to the imagination.

As far as the laws of the Pokemon universe goes, it probably goes without saying that I definitely won't be following strict rules from the games. Some Pokemon might end up learning moves that aren't in their learnset, for example (or at least, if they make sense for the Mon in question). Some moves and abilities might have their function tweaked for this context, or I might go for a different interpretation of how the move manifests physically. There’ll be Pokemon that have more than literally four moves. Stuff like that. I'm inserting some headcanons, some ideas that I think fill in gaps in the world building, and there'll be a lot of changes to the design of the world. I joke to myself that this is a "post-globalism Unova", because there's some locations that are really different, a couple totally original locations, and Pokemon here that don't show up in Pokemon BW/2. You could call it "anime logic" if you want, I just think loosening the rules makes things more interesting and fun to write and read. 

One more little nugget: In case you didn't recognize it, the title is from the Jin song made for the Project Voltage collab! It's my favorite song so far from the crossover, it makes me feel so many things. It just felt like a perfect fit for this story vibes-wise, as well as a fun coincidence since I’d been imagining Kanade with an Eevee for months beforehand.

I may run out of steam eventually, but I'm publishing this first chapter because I'm currently feeling fired up about it. Even if the current enthusiasm wanes over time this'll be here for me to poke with an update whenever I want.

I'd love for you to join me on this silly journey, and I hope you can enjoy it!

[sokkastyles]

You might have talked about this before but after reading a lot of your (really insightful) thoughts on A:TLA and Zutara, I was wondering what your opinion is on the "Would a Zutara kiss have worked in the finale" question? I can understand the feeling behind maybe thinking it'd feel rushed or "forced" but I also know that canon ships have happily sailed on a lot less development than ZK (*cough*), especially considering ZK spend 90% of the finale together, beat Azula together, and mutually saved each other lives', y'know? I don't know, part of me feels like the general/casual audience would've been good with it, it'd just be the ship fandoms up in flames about it if they'd had the spine to do it.

Hi! Thank you! I haven’t talked about it, mostly because I’m not that interested in seeing them kiss onscreen. I’m not the kind of person who cares one way or the other whether what I ship becomes canon. I ship based on whether I see chemistry between characters and whether there is a story there to explore, not whether or not they are likely to get together onscreen. I’m also an adult so I am more interested in relationship dynamics than physical intimacy between adolescent characters. I teach middle school and I have taught high school, I look at these kids and I don’t think any of them are old enough to be dating (although kids do it anyway) much less finding their forever partner.

I actually would have preferred no kiss and an ending that focused on the gaang as friends to the ka kiss we got. And if you can imagine that for a second, you can see where ka goes wrong as a ship, because without the endgame kiss, we leave Katara and Aang on a particularly weird note narrative-wise, because their relationship and Aang’s crush on her becomes a loose plot thread, and the last time they interacted they were fighting. The last time Zuko and Katara interacted, on the other hand, left them closer than ever, and was a resolution to their arc. I feel like that’s part of why the ka kiss feels so rushed and awkward, because it’s like the writers realized that they needed to close that plot thread somehow. A kiss was necessary for ka because of the way the writers wrote themselves into a hole, and the kiss wasn’t enough to get them out of it, either. A kiss was also narratively necessary to make Zuko’s relationship with Mai endgame because I, everyone else in the audience, the show, and Zuko literally forgot about Mai up until that point, and it feels even more forced. But a kiss would not be necessary for zutara because the emotional energy between them speaks for itself.

That said, if I could imagine an ending with a zutara kiss, Zuko and Katara have tons of chemistry and I don’t have a problem believing that they could be attracted to each other given the emotional energy between them in the series, BUT in order to make a kiss work within the timeline of the series they would have to make their feelings for each other more explicit than it is in the series. The show definitely teased the ship, and I’ve spoken a lot on that, but it never moves beyond subtext. Even in “Ember Island Players” when Aang is jealous and worries that Katara doesn’t like him back, he never explicitly worries that there is something going on between Katara and Zuko, even after watching the play tease it, for which I am grateful because I really love the Zuko & Aang relationship and I definitely would not want to see any kind of love triangle angst.

However, there isn’t that much you would have to change to make Zuko and Katara’s feelings explicitly romantic. I mean it when I say there’s obvious romantic coding in many of their scenes. Katara and Zuko’s arc from the crystal catacombs onward is almost identical to a breakup and makeup arc. I joked about Katara being angry that she’s attracted to Zuko post “The Western Air Temple” but that’s because her feelings towards him aren’t that far off, she is mad because she did like him before and doesn’t want to admit it to herself. When he asks her what her problem is with him she makes it clear that her feelings for him are different than the others (”I was the FIRST person to trust you.”) A few tweaks here and there and the subtext could easily be brought to the forefront and developed to the point where a kiss at the end could work. What I would do if I were writing it is introduce it after the play. Maybe Zuko and Katara talk about what really DID happen in the crystal catacombs. (”Wasn’t it ridiculous? The idea of us as a couple!” “Yeah, haha...” *significant look of romantic panic*) Especially since the last five episodes of the show seems to do all it can to nuke Katara’s relationship with Aang. It would feel rushed, but not more rushed than the canon relationships (except Sukka because it wasn’t developed at the last minute) do.

The main thing that they would have to change in order to make zutara really happen though is to give Katara much more romantic agency, and her feelings take more precedence in the narrative. A lot of people can’t imagine Katara with anyone but Aang because Katara’s romantic feelings are never allowed to exist independently of Aang. Even Katara’s crush on Jet is meant to show how much of a nice guy Aang is, the purpose of showing her with Jet and Zuko in the play is for the audience to want Aang to get the girl. Even when Mai showed up in the finale my first reaction was “Oh they have to pair Zuko up with someone because Aang ends up with Katara.” It’s all focused on Aang. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because Aang is the main character, but if you’re not invested in Aang getting the girl then that narrative feels particularly insulting.

#antikataang #zutara #atla meta #katara #zuko #antimaiko

[bigskydreaming]

I agree with everything you said in the last post but especially the Damian part.

Like I don’t know why people treat it like Dick had to choose between two toys and he chose the shinier model. He was in a situation where a 9/10 year old child was going to go back to a murder cult if he didn’t find a quick way to sure he stayed. And no option was good if Damian left. It was either Ra is going to steal his body or would become a powerful supervillain who would resent the whole family and between that is a whole lot of child abuse. It not like Dick had all the time in the world to figure out a different way for Damian to stay he had maybe like a day. 

Also we never actually got to see Dick’s view on the situation only Tim’s because the only time we got to see that conversation was in Red Robin ( which might be wrong but I’m pretty sure I’m right). Tim was having a slight mental breakdown so maybe not the best narrator. 

Like, the ONE thing I'd love for people to keep more centered in the varying discourses about Dick, Tim, Robin and Red Robin, is that like.....

The writer himself had Tim and Dick reconcile and work together in the aftermath of Tim leaving because he was upset.

It really doesn't get mentioned enough IMO that at no point in the actual canon stories was Dick ever oblivious to Tim being hurt, uncaring of this, nor did the canon ever try to claim on Dick's behalf that he DIDN'T hurt Tim, y'know?

I talked earlier tonight about the importance of remembering that these are fictional characters who can not CHOOSE any actions for themselves, but rather are ruled entirely by what the writers choose FOR them.

And the thing is.....for all that Dick is often characterized in fanfics as being oblivious or uncaring to having hurt Tim, or say that he kicked Tim out of the house and the city, or that he called Tim crazy or that he chose Damian OVER Tim or all these other things.....

None of those things say anything about Dick or what kind of character he is, despite the fact that fanon and fics have made a huge deal OUT of running with the idea that THOSE acts in fact say a LOT about Dick's actual character or whatever.....

But like, the point is not just that none of those things say anything about Dick simply because they're not how the canon went....

JUST as important, IMO, is the fact that none of those things are even in the BALLPARK of saying anything about Dick's actual character.....

Because the actual canon was written the way it was for the sake of TIM'S story. It was never about trying to make Dick look good, the events played out the way they did because the writer INTENDED there to be conflict between the brothers about it! Dick didn't find some magical way of ensuring that he delivered the news to Tim in the absolute right way possible because he just didn't care enough about Tim's feelings to do so....Damian delivered the news to Tim in the absolute worst way possible BECAUSE the writer WANTED the chasm between Dick and Tim.

THE CONFLICT WAS THE STORY!

And just as importantly.....the same writer who caused the conflict also RESOLVED the conflict. In his own same stories. Tim and Dick may have never hashed over every single detail of Tim's issues with Dick, but there was CLEARLY a reconciliation. Tim showed his forgiveness, his understanding of why Dick had done what he'd done and the fact that he'd made his peace with it, in a variety of ways from telling Dick he still had his trust, joking with Dick in SPECIFIC ways that called back to personal in-jokes that they'd had since the 90s -

(and that in fact were originally written by the same writer....like, the Brady Bunch jokes are a SPECIFICALLY Fabian Nicieza thing, as in he's the only writer who has EVER had Dick and Tim having that particular in joke between them, and he established it when he first wrote Tim, when he and Dick were great during Tim's time as Robin in the 90s. Tim calling back to those jokes during Red Robin and specifically reinviting memories of some of his favorite moments with his brother HIMSELF, like was as clear a peace gesture as you can get, IMO.)

But point is....the conflict happened the way it did, because it was MEANT to happen. There was supposed to be conflict, so by that very token, Dick wasn't MEANT to find the perfect way to handle the Robin situation that made sure Tim didn't suffer any negative feelings about it.

The reason its lasted so long as discourse in fandom was that regardless of the fact that the writers and characters both showed a resolution to the conflict that was deliberately sown to BE a conflict in the first place....

Fans of Tim decided this resolution wasn't adequate enough.

And so the events of it have been tweaked endlessly, as has the fact that the brothers reconciled itself, in order to keep this conflict extended far beyond the parameters or duration of the ACTUAL canon conflict its based on....with Dick further exaggerated into this uncaring instigator because the conflict FANS wanted was one in which Tim was Dick's victim in a way that he was never intended to be by the initial source conflict, which wanted BOTH characters to be somewhat sympathetic but now turned into a one-sided thing where only ONE character is 'deserving' of sympathy.....

But the problem is....that wasn't the story. And this wouldn't BE a problem, due to it being fanfic and fanfic being innately transformative, if not for the fact that people keep trying to point to canon actions as the proof of conclusions they're drawing about Dick's actions in the FANON conflict.....when the only thing the canon actions are meant to serve as the foundation for, is the conflict which ACTUALLY happened AND was resolved in canon!

And the thing is, a lot of fandom have done a lot to compare this situation to Dick losing Robin in the first place, but without actually leaning into that comparison in order to examine how Dick truly felt about that then, and ACTUALLY make it the comparison they're raising it as.....

(people can't claim that they've done this if they themselves are calling the situations parallel and yet clearly holding Tim and his feelings as innately more sympathetic and deserving of understanding than they're willing to even retroactively apply to Dick in the very situation they themselves have invited comparisons to....like if you're STILL calling for Dick's head for what he did with Robin here in a way that you're not having any characters anywhere, even just in reference or passing say that Bruce deserves being chewed out for to similar degrees.....your comparison is rigged from the start, it just is)....

But ultimately at the end of the day, there IS an answer for why Dick wasn't more careful and studious in his handling of the Robin situation....and that answer, for better or worse, is that he wasn't MEANT to be. The handling exists the way it played out, because it was meant to engender a specific conflict, one that was then resolved to the satisfaction of the story's writer.

If that wasn't to the satisfaction of fans, that's understandable! No story ever satisfies all fans!

But the problem is, the transformative nature of fanfic cuts two ways. And this is what people so often conveniently overlook when they cite that you can do anything with fanfic and that its subject to everyone's personal wants and agenda.

Like this is all perfectly true. But what people CAN'T do, is forbid others from drawing conclusions based on what decisions you do and don't make with fanfic.

And the problem with the Red Robin discourse, is we have a conflict that was engineered from the start, and negatively impacted a particular character aka Tim.

And the resolution the canon offered didn't satisfy the itch a lot of Tim's fans had for that particular conflict.

But the thing is.....there's two entirely different ways to tweak a conflict with fanfic.

You can make it BETTER.

Or you can make it WORSE.

And nine out of ten times - with this being especially obvious when you keep in mind that the canon itself DID CREATE RESOLUTION TO ITS OWN CONFLICT - its very apparent that a lot of fans just were not interested in making the resolution of this conflict even BETTER than what we got in the canon.

See, because the reason it happened in canon at all was NOT in fact because Dick was just as uncaring and neglectful as FANON of this conflict makes him out to be....since the reason it happened that way at all was ONLY because the writer needed it to happen in SOME way that sowed conflict between Tim and Dick and sparked Tim's solo journey of self-discovery.....

The only real way to BETTER resolve the conflict of the Robin mantle transition...

Would be for Dick to specifically approach Tim in such a way as to take his feelings about the matter into account and make his argument for why he felt Damian needed this now.

And that's something that's ABSOLUTELY easy to do, because the only reasons things DIDN'T happen that way in the first place, was circumstantial! Because the story was PLOTTED to have Damian spill the beans before Dick even had an opportunity to talk to Tim one on one. Changing a story's direction born of circumstance is one of the easiest things to do with fanfic since all you have to do is write different circumstances! Nobody's character even needs addressing there, because no character is inherently flawed for that story happening the way it did....that's why the story WORKED, in canon! Dick just circumstantially wasn't given even an OPPORTUNITY to be as conscientious about the matter as we would have liked him to be.

Easy, EASY fix with fanfic.

But that's not what fanfic tends to do with this particular story point, is it?

Instead, we get constant worsenings of Dick's motivations, Dick's choices, Dick's reaction to Tim's response, etc, etc.

The slant is entirely one-sided, aimed at making Tim not just more sympathetic, but Dick LESS sympathetic. Making it a nuance-free example of not even two brothers fighting in the face of their mutual grief, but one being VICTIMIZED by the other's willful ignorance of their feelings and loss, while simultaneously demonstrating none of the same himself.

And that's a choice that tons of fanfic writers have made, and they GET to make that choice, but what doesn't get to happen is making everyone else pretend that this was the only way the story COULD have gone, the TRUE resolution it deserved and the thing that ACTUALLY said something indicative of Dick's character.....

When not only were there these other opportunities to resolve the conflict in ways better for BOTH characters....the resolution of the actual conflict is considered irrelevant even though creating a conflict that could be resolved in story was the ONLY reason for the characters making the specific choices they made in the first place!

The discourse is literally all just born of people using the slight against Tim's character as an excuse to make Dick's character look worse. IMO to distract from the fact that this happened at all, because the real gripe was with Tim not being Robin anymore but there was no way to unilaterally decry that WITHOUT making the case that Damian should never have been Robin, and most fans I think recognize that would have been a nonstarter, discourse wise. There’s no rolling the clock back on a new Robin EXISTING, that’s been proven conclusively in the past. Once a character has been a Robin, you can’t argue away their right to ever be one period. If it couldn’t happen with Steph, despite the shortness of her Robin tenure and the smaller size of the girls’ fanbases relative the various Batboys (and let’s not pretend a disparity doesn’t exist there), then it wasn’t going to happen with Damian. So fans made their displeasure known in another way - venting it on the character that precipitated the changing of this particular guard.

And the thing is, ultimately, for all the comparisons made to the Bruce and Dick Robin debacle, they all fall short of being valid given two fundamental differences:

1) Canon has one hundred percent refused to ever fully address the conflict Bruce created in story when he fired Dick or just gave Robin away to Jason, with the only time its ever really been addressed in the comics being when Dick came to confront Bruce about it and Bruce made no form of actual apology or recourse, but instead ultimately just yelled at Dick about missing him and then told him to go. Which umm. Yeah. Oh, the resolution of it all.

2) The other key difference being that while there are certainly fans who have used these story points simply TO make Bruce look worse, the same as I'd argued happened with Dick in the Red Robin scenario.....it is still undeniable that there are a sizable number of fans such as myself who have always insisted we only raise this particular story element because we WANT to see better or actual resolution of the conflict raised in story - aka Bruce firing Dick or just giving away Robin - AS WELL AS being very clear on a perfectly easy way TO showcase better resolution: just having Bruce fucking OWN HIS ACTIONS AND APOLOGIZE FOR THEM.

So even with the awareness that while ultimately both Robin turnovers only happened because the writers chose that conflict happen, they remain incomparable in my mind purely because only one of them was ACTUALLY resolved or treated as resolved in canon, and like.....the other one is the only one that actually has fans continuously making the point of what story actions can actually be taken in meta, headcanons and fics, TO create the resolution we want.....whereas the other conflict will never be resolved any better than it is in canon, because the people who keep raising the conflict don't even want to acknowledge that it even WAS resolved in canon at all, because that would defeat the entire purpose of continuously worsening the conflict specifically TO create reasons for a continued grudge against Dick's character.

And you flat out just can't ever resolve a conflict that people ultimately WANT to exist.

[mallowstep]

Genetics ask! I know that male torties/torbies are very rare and caused by a genetic mutation, but with those who do exist, are there any prerequisites with their parents? I’m assuming they’d have to carry the red gene since tortoiseshell is one red, one not-red, but I barely know anything. And based on this, is it better to just headcanon cats like Redtail as biologically female?

alright! hello, anon.

since i had to do more research than usual for this one, reminder that:

i am not an expert. i can and will be wrong. you can find my self-corrections under #corrections, but those are only things i or others have noticed, and that i've had the time to write a correction to and explain.

disclaimers out of the way, let's talk about tortie toms. (and torbie toms, and calico toms, it's all the same deal.)

if you know how ginger works, you can skip the next few paragraphs.

orange (ginger, red, etc.) is sex-linked in cats. what this means is that the gene that causes orange cats is on the x chromosome. it is also codominant, which means that having an orange x chromosome (Xo) and a non-orange x chromosome (X) is not black or orange, but both.

basically:

X or XX: black

Xo or XoXo: orange

XXo: tortoiseshell

yeah?

now, for the rest of this post, i'm going to be writing O and o instead of Xo and X because it's one less character and i don't run the risk of putting three x chromosomes together.

okay. so because torties need two x chromosomes, they're typically female. the way tortie itself works is basically, cells activate one of the genes (O or o) at random, creating patches. so you need two copies.

wikipedia says about a third of male torties have klinefelter's, which is the XXY karyotype. while this does have physical changes associated with it, the only way to confirm (humans have) klinefelter's is to test it genetically.

luckily, cats are very helpful about demonstrating it. what with them being tortie and all.

(we're also lumping in the variations of klinefelter's here. you can get XXYY, etc., and they all fit into the same broad idea.)

anyway, the extra x chromosome can come from either the mother or the father. this makes tortie toms...not quite easier, since the prereqs are the same, but y'know. if mom is Oo, dad doesn't matter. if mom is OO, dad has to be o, and if mom is oo, dad has to be O. same rules as usual.

XXY toms are going to be...not sterile, but pretty infertile. using human stats, about 50% can produce sperm, although the likelihood of them having kits is still low. humans with klinefelter's are also taller than average, so keep that in mind.

again, and this might be a correction on my part, i can't remember, but tortie toms aren't strictly going to be visibly different than other toms.

okay, so most people stop at klinefelter's, but there are two other ways to get tortie toms: mosiacism and chimerism. these are often confused/combined, but because i strive for generally being accurate, i'll go over them both.

mosaic cats carry multiple genetic lines, because of a mutation. this can either be somatic (happens in the body, is not hereditary), or germline (happens in reproductive cells of parents, is hereditary).

this is not always a gain of a line, you can lose a chromosome as well. the difference between somatic and germline and how it affects torties goes over my head, so i'm not going to speak to it, other than i'm pretty sure we're talking about somatic mosaicism. i think. again, not a biologist or geneticist, just a hobbyist with an internet connection.

right, so what happens is basically, some cells lose their extra x chromosome, giving you a cat with karyotype XXY/XY. these cats are more likely to be fertile and generally have less effects of klinefelter's. i'm not entirely sure how this affects tortie presentation, if at all, but it does happen.

i suppose you could also have some kind of mutation that gives you an extra x spontaneously, but that would be unlikely to cause torties, because it would also have to mutate into the other O allele.

again, i really want to stress that while i'm not bullshitting, i'm also not speaking definitively here.

last up is chimerism, where two embryos fuse in the womb, creating mixed genes.

i'm using a picture of a dog, here, because this is what goes through my head when i think of chimeras. you'll have to take my word for it, but while this would be a normal tortie cat, it can't really happen in dogs without some kind of mutation. and chimerism, given the extent of the patching, is pretty likely.

right! chimera torties are going to be, afaik, normal levels of fertile, although it's likely that they can pass on either black or red, not both.

(while i'm here, before we move on, there are a lot of types of chimeras. this type is called tetragametic chimerism, and it's rare in humans but more common in other animals. it's hard to know how common it is, because the differences are often very subtle, and hard to test. it's also not mutually exclusive with mosaics or klinefelter's, just to really muddy the waters.)

i don't have statistics for how common mosaics and chimeras are, and there's always, "a different type of mutation that doesn't fall into this category"

for mosaics and chimeras, the rules for inheritance seem to be the same as for klinefelter's. there's the added note that, because there can be multiple sires within one litter, a ginger queen could have kits with a ginger tom, and get a tortie son, as long as she also...ahem...with a black(/brown, etc.) tom. (or vice versa, with all brown and a ginger.)

okay! so that's basically how it happens.

as for the second part of this question, well. "is it better?" is a matter of opinion. i don't think anyone is wrong for having tortie toms. i don't care. (a) it is possible, and (b) we're all just having fun.

i, personally, do not think redtail is karyotype XX, because i like him being sandstorm's father with brindleface. idk. i like brindleface. yes, i know this raises huge genetic problems, and it's not very canon. i don't really care. i read that redtail fic where he thinks about sand&brindle as he's dying and it hasn't left me.

that said, i'm still a sucker for trans redtail. love it. idk, this is kind of hard to explain. like? it's not my headcanon, but i still appreciate it.

anyway! to the point: if you care about statistics and likelihoods and how many tortie toms you've had in the clan, yes, you're probably better off saving your chromosome anomalies for when they need to have kits, and using XX karyotype for the rest.

(under the cut: matthew rambles about trans cats and gender identity for a while)

i'm pretty sure cats don't have the western concept of gender. i don't think they have a human concept of gender, either, but at some point i need to be able to pin down something, and i think a third/fourth gender is closer to what they have.

i've been thinking about this a lot lately, because i decided i wasn't satisfied with my old approach to trans cats. i can do better than that. i decided cats don't have gendered pronouns, so why should the solution be, "trans cats don't really get to do anything about it"

no. i am dissatisfied with that.

at the same time, for specific reasons: i also don't think cats are trans in the western sense of the word.

because if for nothing else, remember that cat sexual dimorphism has a bigger effect on their life than in humans.

like, queens are going to be uncomfortable around male cats they don't hella trust and their kits. that doesn't go away if said male cat isn't a tom. y'know?

i'm in a constant state of tweaks with this, because i basically: form opinion, test opinion, refine opinion. my initial opinion was too harsh. and!

part of what's changed is i decided i wanted fernsong to be able to raise his kits in the nursery instead of ivypool. so i had to adjust how i think the nursery and queens work, slightly, to permit for that. now, i can turn back to gender and think about it some more.

i'm not going to coin any new terms, because i'm not in that kind of mood, but i think there is some idea of a female cat who is not a she-cat. i don't think the cats would call them a tom, but i'm not sure what they would say or how they would describe it.

i think they would just, on some level, get it.

actually okay you know what! i do need some lingo here. queens = cats who are raising kits in the nursery. she-cats = XX karyotype, considers self female (cis, if you will). toms = XY karyotype, considers self male (cis, again). and uh...we'll go with...

god i hate. i don't want anything i say in this ramble to be considered "words i am going to now use consistently" because i literally just need some way to describe this for my own sanity. with that in mind, let us use molly for XY karyotype, but not a tom, and...how about gib for XX karyotype, not a she-cat.

again, i don't want that to be considered permanent, i'm just fishing at words people use to describe cats so i can have something to work with.

right so, i don't think cats think gib and tom are equivalent, but i also don't think they (as a society) care about that.

like, okay, let's say redtail is XX, but not a she-cat. there's nothing to really be done (heck, if he wants to be a queen, that's still fine), cats don't have gendered pronouns or names, but at the same time, there's an intuitive understanding of what that means.

this kind of ties into the matriarchy, kind of? like, hm, queens are an important part of the matriarchy, but at the same time, she-cats inherit family lines. not that cats inherit much, but still.

i'm getting very abstract here. take, uh, like let's say a hypothetical trans mothwing. i think a lot of people have that headcanon?

and i think, like, mothwing would not be considered a tom. if cats had a concept of sexuality, leafpool would not be straight, because she likes mothwing, and mothwing is not a tom.

but! i would still think willowshine probably is the first line for nursery visits, at least when the kits are very young.

and i don't think anyone there would be unhappy with that deal.

right. i just kept rambling for a while, because i've been thinking about this and obviously it's semi-tied to the question.

tl/dr: cats don't care about gender, because they are cats meowing at each other in the woods. if a cat says they're not agab, everyone is just cool with that.

#ask #anon #essay #long #ask to tag #jic #mine #txt #genetics #redtail #warriors genetics #trans cats

[andie-cake]

Hmm...

I think it would be interesting to flesh out Emma going to visit Jane (and see Tim, maybe for the first time if we’re staying in canon here) and learning that she’s gone. Maybe not terribly fluffy though, but fun dynamics with Tim and it could explain how she ended up staying with Tom and Tim for the borrowers AU?

In terms of fluff, sorry my brain doesn’t like fluff without some tinge of sadness, for HOHF, Emma and Paul fight [villain of your choice] and someone gets hurt and the aftermath of that. Alternatively, I’d love to know if Tim has the Nitro Gene and if so, if he joins his Aunt Emma and Uncle Paul in the field. That could be so cute! (Although, he could also join mission control or maybe make friends with another super if Hannah has powers as well? But that’s not Paulkins...) If you feel like picking up a family fluff piece, which is personally my favorite genre, lol, I’d love to see Paul and Emma as parents and if their child shows their powers early (since it’s not nitro gene specific from Paul, if it can be inherited, of course, and now I’m imaging Jack Jack from the incredible, lol) or for Harriet and Tex to come back and see their baby (oh that would be adorable because grandparent plants and you can imagine how proud they would be of Emma!) or to see how Slacky interacted with the baby. (I’m imagining a how a Golden Retriever interacts with babies now... 😂) Or, if you’d prefer to ignore children all together, Emma going back home and taking Paul to meet Harriet and Tex (meet the parents essentially). Well, I’m not sure if any of those ideas seem interesting, but if not, I hope they’re able to help get some fun ideas flowing. Have a lovely weekend! 😊

Okay, so... A lot of these are stuff that I want to explore in longer stories eventually, both the Borrowers AND the HoHF prompts. But you DID give me an idea for some HoHF family fluff between Emma and Tim!

"Here's that big project I was telling you about!"

Emma had been back in Hatchetfield for what, six, seven months now? And she'd long since made a name for herself as Wild Flower. She was respected, loved even, by the town that had once cast her aside. And what's more, she'd managed to connect with her nephew, who seemed to think she was cool despite her absence for most of his life! If it wasn't for the fact that Tim didn't know she was Wild Flower yet, she would've chalked it up to that.

After all, Tim loved superheroes. Understandable, considering his mother was one of the most revered supers in the country before she died. Being raised by someone like that was bound to give someone a deep respect for the career. And right now, Tim was showing Emma his most recent token of appreciation. A social studies project he'd done for school about superheroes around the world.

It was a large cardboard diagram, with a map of the world taped to it. Coming from a line pointing to each continent (barring Antarctica, because duh), was a photograph of a super that was native to said continent, accompanied by a short paragraph with information about them.

"Wooooow, you really know your supers, bud!" Emma mused as she scanned over the diagram, impressed.

Tim looked up at her with a bashful smile. "Thanks," he said, blushing. "Wanna hear more about each one?"

"Educate me!"

"Okay, so," Tim began excitedly, pointing to the super whose picture corresponded to Australia. A woman with long, blonde hair and a bright blue superhero getup. "That right there is Tidal Crash, she's an Australian super with the power to control water."

"Can she talk to sea creatures?" Emma asked, encouraging her nephew to continue.

"Yeah, telepathically," Tim replied. "She's like the cool version of Aquaman."

Emma snickered at Tim's snark. God, he was such a Perkins. He continued on, pointing to the picture next to Africa. A dark-skinned man with long dreadlocks and an award-winning smile, half his face covered by a deep purple mask.

"That's Radi ya Umeme," Tim continued to explain. "He's from Kenya, and his name is Swahili for 'Lightning Strike'. He can control the weather, but he's really good with lightning, hence the name. He's kinda like Madbolt in a way, only y'know, not evil."

Emma chuckled, remembering her most recent encounter with that old nutjob. Madbolt was a fascinating case, he'd been causing trouble for Hatchetfield since around the time Emma was born. Not even Jane had managed to land him behind bars. Tim continued, his finger landing on the South American picture. A man with dark, curly hair and deep brown eyes, clad in a black leather costume.

"That guy is Espalda con Púas, his name is Spanish for 'Spiked Back'," Tim said, talking as though he was still presenting the project to his teacher and classmates. "He's from Chile, and as his name would imply, he can grow spikes out of his back and sharpen his teeth and nails into fangs and claws!"

Emma nodded, urging him to continue. With an excited smile, Tim moved on to Asia, where a picture of a short-haired woman with a shining mask lay.

"That's Dá Quy, she's from South Vietnam," he continued. "Her name means 'Gemstone', and she can control different ores and minerals and stuff."

Tim moved on to Europe, where a picture of a woman with short brown hair and an elegant, but still practical costume lay.

"That's Lady Nighthawk, she's from England," he explained as Emma continued to listen intently. "She can talk to animals and harness their abilities to fight. She visits Hatchetfield once a year, too!"

"Right! I think I remember your mother telling me about meeting a 'Lady Nighthawk' before!" Emma exclaimed in recollection.

"Yeah, mom worked with a lot of supers," Tim mused fondly before moving on to the final picture, the one corresponding to North America. A grizzled man with long dirty-blonde hair and a decked-out suit. "And finally, there's Eagle Eye! He's an ex-military general who can shapeshift into a bald eagle! And he's got this awesome combat suit that he uses in human form! He's from Washington D.C., but just like Lady Nighthawk, he visits Hatchetfield sometimes!"

Emma smiled at the sight of the super who'd been acting as a mentor to her for the past week. During a rescue mission she'd nearly bungled, Eagle Eye- or John MacNamara as she'd learned his real name was, swooped in to lend a hand. He'd taken a shine to her, and offered to help coach her in the ways of being a superhero. Emma had been learning lots of valuable information off of John. But of course, there was no way Emma could tell Tim about-

"Speaking of, did you hear that he's been working with Wild Flower lately?"

Okay, nevermind! Emma froze, surprised by her nephew's casual mention of her alias. Was this a good time to tell him? Better test the waters to be sure...

"Oh yeah, Wild Flower!" she exclaimed, trying to play it cool. "I've, uh... been hearing lots about her lately!"

"Yeah, it's so weird!" Tim chuckled. "It's like she just came out of nowhere!"

Emma nervously drummed her fingers on the headboard of Tim's bed, where they'd been sitting for the past couple of minutes. Did he mean that in a good way or a bad way?

"She's awesome, though!" Tim continued, an excited sparkle in his eyes. Emma's heart began to race. "Her powers are so cool! I mean, she can summon that big flytrap thing! What was it's name again?"

"Slack-Jaw?" Emma replied, a barely-contained smile on her face.

"Right, Slack-Jaw!" Tim recalled. "And did you see her new costume? The green jacket with the cool logo on it?"

"Mhm!" Emma hummed in response, happily recalling the day she was presented that jacket at Town Hall. The mayor had recognized her feats of heroism, and had the jacket tailor-made for her to replace that ratty old, ill-fitting red leather jacket she'd bought from a Goodwill in a scrambled effort to make a good costume. It still needed some tweaks now, but the new jacket was an excellent start.

"And now that she's getting lessons from Eagle Eye, she's only gonna get better!" Tim gushed. "She's just so- Aunt Emma? What're you smiling so hard for?"

God, Emma couldn't keep this secret any longer. She had to tell him.

"I have a question for you, bud," she began, resisting the urge to just tell him outright. "Did your mom ever say anything about both her and me having the Nitro Gene?"

Tim's eyebrows shot up. "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed. "But she said that you didn't like talking about your powers, so she never told me what they were. I figured you still wouldn't wanna talk about them, so I never asked."

Emma's heart fluttered. What had she done to deserve such a considerate nephew? "You wanna take a guess?"

"O-okay, but why n-" Tim cut himself off, the gears clearly turning in his head. After a few moments, he turned to Emma with a look of awed realization on his face. "W-wait, Aunt Emma... Are you saying that you're...?"

"Wild Flower?" Emma finished, eyeing him cheekily. "You bet!"

A smile slowly blossomed onto Tim's face. "No way!" he exclaimed. "B-but mom always said you didn't wanna be a superhero!"

"Well, people change their minds sometimes!" Emma retorted. "And I decided to finally put my powers to good use once I came back home."

"Wow..." Tim gaped breathlessly.

"But I'm still your Aunt Emma, first and foremost!" Emma quickly clarified. "I'm still the same person, just y'know... with plant powers."

"O-of course!" Tim stammered, his mind looking certifiably blown. His face grew serious. "And don't worry, I won't tell anybody about your secret identity!"

Emma snickered, tousling her nephew's hair. "I appreciate it, bud," she said, pulling him into a hug. "...Want me to introduce you to Slack-Jaw?"

"...Maybe."

#hohf au #hohf drabbles

[thevaloroushearts]

"Alyx, look, the rays...! Do you see them...?"

"Mm'yep, sure do, sis... sure do..."

Cloudy skies, lowering temperature, gentle chills blowing across the cityfolk of Altiel... the cooler seasons were arriving, meaning many citizens were bundling up and readying themselves for the holidays. Shopping, staying warm, making memories with photoshoots, families walking together... no matter the lowering temperature, there was still a sense of warmth bustling about...

"I'm not certain why, but seeing rays of light breaking through winter clouds... it's such a gentle yet inspiring sight..." the normally sheepish Gardevoir commented with a tender tint of excitement, ears lifting as she felt her artist fingers twitch her finger across an open page in her sketchbook.

“Yeah, it’s kinda pretty I guess...” Meanwhile, the pale Gallade just looked on towards the sea, his gaze seeming... disinterested...? This didn't go by Oriel unnoticed, of course...

"Brother?"

"... Yeah?"

"... Pardon me for saying so, but you seem distant... is everything alright? You've grown passive as of late..."

"Eh, well... it's just, we've been working here for a while, doing all these fights and whatnot, raising money to make our ends meet..."

"Yes...?"

"... I guess I've just been wondering..." Alyx just rubbed the back of his head as a pessimistic sigh left his lips, "Don't get me wrong, Oriel, I'm thankful we've gone this far, it's just... As psyched as I am, I was just wondering if we ever will... , or at least, if we did go to see them, if something would make things take a turn for--"

"Heeey li'l bro, hey li'l sis! What're YOU two doing out without your li'l jackets, hm? Heehee~!"

Well that was a pleasant change of pace. The twins ears shot up as they caught the wind of a very familiar doting sisterly voice, with Oriel being first to turn her neck and see their adoptive sibling Lixue hopping over ever-so-cheerfully, sipping a cold beverage.

"Ah, Lixue! Hello again!"

"Hiya hiya! Have you two been standing here this whole time? C'mon, we live in Altiel! Go walk around the city! See the sights! What's gotten my lively li'l bro Alyx and inspired li'l sis Oriel staying put like this? It's not like ya!"

"Ah! W-well, erm, we're just--"

"Catching our breath and taking in the sights for once. Day off and all, sometimes all we just need is fresh air, y'know?"

Lixue could only giggle. "I could believe Oriel saying that, but YOU needing a break, Alyx? Heehee, you have the stamina of a Mudsdale! That's just silly!"

"Erm, Lixue... where is Masou...?"

"Hm? Oh!" She stuck her tongue out as she took a sip of her lemonade before  giving a little sigh. "He's just back at the League, thinking to himself as usual."

"The guy's gotta get out more... can't go isolating himself all the time, y'know? Hasn't he beaten himself up enough yet...?"

Way back at the ABL, the Hellfire Hoodlum himself was perched upon the ceiling of their fighting organization workplace, looming over the city. His own version of sight-seeing, perhaps? Akin to what a nightwatcher would do, at least. The reptile let out a steamy hiss as a whispy trail left his nostrils, gazing down at the cityfolk while allowing himself to be lost in his own thoughts.

<< Mmh... this view of the city...>> he thought to himself, tail idly swishing about as he hissed behind his collar, <<... perhaps one day I'll allow myself to actually enjoy it, once my debt is repaid... >> A disgruntled yet brooding exhale left his mouth, wanting to uncover his head to welcome the breeze, but he held himself back, as if fighting temptation, or perhaps refusing for another reason...

As his eyes wandered, he noticed far off in the distance that the vacant block of space far away from the more lively part of the city had but a few souls attending to it... an area that gave a chillingly silent vibe.

---

"..."

A somber wind howled lightly around the tall dark knight as he glanced down at his subject, as a sigh echoed within his mask and helmet.

"Two years..." he muttered to himself, "... nearly two years now... how time flies..."

Zarathos remained still, unmoving not unlike a statue, as his thoughts continued to escape him...

" ... To think, had I not allowed something so... primal... so arrogant..."

The rest of those would-be words died in his throat, replacing the remnants with harsh mumbles. At a loss for what else to say, Zarathos pledged a hand powerfully to his chest, letting out an adamant snarl.

" ... rest well, soldier..."

Unbeknownst to the Bisharp, at least yet, there were two other Altiel citizens that happened to walk by the entry to this somber field, looking on at the terrifyingly tall warrior from a safe  distance.

"... Erm, how long do you think he's been there...?" a soft, concerned male Bisharp's voice uttered to the other.

"Ah, that I cannot say, mein Freund..." retorted the girl, holding a hand up to her mouth. "I... try to avoid areas such as these, yet seeing him here all by myself makes me wonder..."

"I agree, it's a somber place, but the fact that the Champion is all the way from the Battle League, here, all alone...?"

"Pardon me, but what are you two unlikely onlookers doing?"

"GCK--!" "ACK--!"

Takeshi and Eira nearly leaped at the sound of being addressed from behind, the Medicham behind the both of them merely chuckling in amusement. Adjusting his glasses, he continued to prod.

"Are the two of you here to spy our notorious battle-reigning brood? My my, how unusually rude of you two! Even the champion can't get a moment of peace during such glum displays of consciousness. I highly doubt you two came to merely stare at the dead from a long distance?"

"O-oh! I was just, er, fetching supplies for the Kirikuisine! Food supplies!"

"And I was, er, making my way to the Blue Moon Cafe!"

"The Blue Moon Cafe is not this many blocks away from the ABL, madame. And why come here when the food supermarket provides superior ingredients in the other direction for your quaint little foodshop?"

Just before the two could answer, they felt a burning glare pierce them from the distance.

" ... How long have you been there?" snarled the champion at his unwelcome 'audience.'

Needless to say, Takeshi and Eira were quick to make their ways away, but not before awkwardly waving to Zarathos and then each other.

"T-to the food market with me! Ahaha, farewell!"

"Oh of course! Take care, Takeshi!"

The Medicham just rolled his eyes and shook his head, raising a hand peaceably at the dark champion before walking off. <<Very well, leaving him to his charmingly depressing payment of respects is fair enough I suppose... my curiosity would only be squandered in a place such as this.>>

---

" ... I'm sure he'll be alright~!" Lixue remarked before sidling up to her adoptive siblings, tilting her head with a cute smile. "C'mon, cheer up Alyx! Masou does enough frowning for the rest of us, you don't have to stay so quiet! C'mon, let's see a smile," insisted the icy Lucaritales before hugging her adoptive Gallade brother.

"Nnh, Li, please--"

And then Alyx's blood sister joined, smiling up at the bladed brawler in hopes he would listen to the words of Lixue. Al could only sigh and give off an awkward grin.

"C-c'mon Oriel, Lixue, you're embarrassing me out here..."

"Heehee, you're beyond embarrassment at this age, Alyx!"

"There's that smile..." Oriel chimed with a little giggle. “How ironic, is it not? You’re usually the one who consoles me...”

"Hah, alright alright, ya win. I've just been thinking a lot that's all, but I guess I'll spend more time seein' sights as usual.”

"Yee~! There we go! Great idea! Let's walk around Altiel together!"

"I-If you're alright with that, Alyx...?"

"... Heh... sure, why not."

---

(( The Valorous Hearts is back! This is a soft boot; a continuation from the older archive blog, with some tweaks to designs, stories, motives and other details! Most relationships, unless desired otherwise, will remain canon, but some have been redone/adjusted! Some questions can be re-asked, feel free to ask which ones! ))

#gallade #gardevoir #lucario #bisharp #scrafty #togekiss #medicham #alyxgallae #orielgardevoir #lixuelucario #masouscrafty #zarathosbisharp #takeshibisharp #eiragardekiss #vihaanmedicham