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#healing and magic in superhero universes is always tricky
jumpboy-rembrandt · 6 years
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hey do yall wanna hear an au idea i’ve had abt the seven birds as a superhero team? the plot is constantly changing, but here’s what i’ve got (warning it’s a lot and bullet points are used gratuitously):
an alien object falls to the earth, breaking apart as it falls. it scatters around a small city, and the pieces seem to hone in on the nearest living human once they near the ground.
(psst – this is the light of creation)
these seven (mostly) unrelated people slowly realize that they now have…unusual abilities
another alien entity follows, and its agents begin wreaking havoc around this city searching for the missing pieces of the light
(psst – this is the hunger)
individually, each person touched by the light ventures out to fight off these beings, especially since they themselves tend to be targeted.
these agents can get a vague sense of where the shards are, but not who exactly has them. thus, there is some degree of investigation done to find the individuals.
said agents can either be sentient or monster-like
the light-holders are all disguised as they fight – some for anonymity, some so that these agents have more trouble seeking them out, and some just because it seems like the right thing to do.
none of them knew each other before now, but they cross paths often enough that they realize they should probably group up.
most of them want to keep their identities secret, so they agree to do that while also making a few other decisions:
they should all have each others’ numbers. they won’t seek each other out, but it is important to keep in contact.
they should get better costumes (a plea from taako, who subsequently makes them)
they should have a theme
so they decide upon uniform colors and the title of “seven birds” because…idk, maybe they all like how poetic it sounds?
anyway, here’s a breakdown of each member:
magnus was struck by the light while sparring with carey behind their apartment complex. he was knocked over and carey kinda panicked?? but then he got up and said “did you do that?” and she responded “how would i hurl something at you from the sky, you’re fucking huge” and they moved past it
carey and magnus are roommates, so she’s the first one to notice when he starts accidentally breaking things and can knock her down more easily.
the weirdest part was when he was carving a little figurine and she jumped up behind him – to be fair, she thought he was drawing plans for something at the carpentry shop. they both saw the knife go directly towards his fingers and…bounce off. being magnus, he immediately tried to stab his hand and nothing happened. carey, being carey, poked the edge to see if it was dull and, ow, no, it wasn’t.
so, magnus has super strength and armor-like skin. a downside to this is that the changes weren’t entirely magic (think commitment), so he has to eat a lot more than usual and that’s. not insignificant.
the superhero name he chooses is eagle, which he called out immediately bc he wanted the best bird. his color theme is orange. his uniform doesn’t have sleeves, and it was a struggle for taako to even make him wear a shirt.
merle was hiking through the woods, and when he got hit he actually blacked out for a little bit. he woke up in a bed of flowers and, huh, that’s really convenient how it broke my fall
he works part time as an EMT and spends the rest working in a plant nursery. i. think you can guess how he notices what’s going on.
merle’s power is accelerating and manipulating organic growth, which means that he can both control plants and heal wounds. this does take a physical toll, as it is his energy being transferred. he also needs to eat a lot.
his superhero name is dove bc ~peace~ and stuff. his color theme is, naturally, green.
taako and lup were. uh. not getting in trouble. they were just having a misunderstanding. fortunately, said misunderstanding was not as fast as they were bc the misunderstanding was missing their shoes. they stumbled and fell as the light split at the last second and hit them both, but they quickly jumped back to their feet, turned a corner, and were home free.
both of them are studying masters level chemistry, so their discoveries are in public and require a bit of covering up. taako was trying to work out the chemical structure of a fairly simple crystal when it moved. he jumped, then tried it again, and found out that he could even separate out certain parts without needing a reactant.
lup gets bored waiting for a solution to boil and suddenly it explodes
taako’s power is manipulating chemical structures and lup’s is causing combustion or explosions. both require a knowledge of chemistry; taako has to understand the structure of what he’s moving or separating, and lup needs to know about boiling/ignition points and pressure changes etc. again; the energy comes from them. you get the point by now, i think.
taako is starling and purple, and lup is phoenix and red.
they both have pockets containing little beads of easy-to-change materials if they can’t find anything else to use
barry is a phd student, and was in the basement bio lab of the local university when the light phased through the ceiling and hit him. he stumbled backwards and fortunately didn’t hurt himself, bc he basically lives in there and no one would check on him for a while.
the next time he’s forced into a university function, he’s shrinking against a wall wishing he wasn’t there, and then he…isn’t. he falls over into the next room bc he just went through the wall.
i’ll be honest – barry basically has danny phantom powers. the tricky bit is that if he’s exhausted, instead of losing his powers, he can’t keep a physical form very well. finally, a reason for this man to get some sleep already.
his codename is nightingale and his color is blue. thank goodness he can make his clothes and glasses ghost with him, or else he’d be recognizable and useless.
davenport was relaxing with a short flight just outside of town. he notices some strange lights, then realizes one is coming towards him, then barely manages to keep the plane from crashing when it hits him in the head. he quickly lands and checks the plane for damage, but there’s no trace of it.
his mind is wandering during a pretty boring meeting one day when everyone suddenly stops. davenport tunes in and notices that, um, there’s a small boat appearing to float across the table. this completely snaps him out of his thoughts, and it disappears. it’s a good thing the old people on the board like to brush over unexplainable things, bc after a few moments, the meeting picks back up.
he works at a nerd museum. he mostly enjoys it, but also wants to save up enough to move to the coast.
his power is creating illusions and, depending on his energy, materializing them. the illusions barely cost anything, but the materialization is really draining.
his hero name is canary and his color theme is gold.
i wanted it to be albatross at first, but that sounded a little…eh? i liked canary better, esp since it’s yellow
+ instead of having half the symbolism of a curse, it symbolizes freedom!! i think that’s an important dav trait.
finally, lucretia was riding home on her bike and, unlike dav, did crash. strangely, she and her bike were totally unharmed.
lucretia works part-time as a secretary to save up for college, while also working at a bookstore bc she is a Nerd. she got lost in the Deep Shelves and, when a pile of books fell and set off a domino effect, she stretched out her hands to stop them – and they actually did stop.
lucretia can create force fields of any shape, and move them around. that may seem simple, but she can ride them like a hover board, trap people, and, if she’s strong enough, slice things.
her superhero name is bluejay and her color is teal.
other characters include:
julia, magnus’s coworker/boss’s daughter, and they’ve been in love since forever. when the light stuff started though, magnus figured he should slow down.
…yeah, she figures it out pretty soon. magnus is bad at keeping secrets.
carey, magnus’s roommate and constant alibi/excuse-maker/back-up
killian, who works security at the business lucretia secretaries at, and keeps bringing her out to social stuff bc the girl needs it. they also talk abt girls a lot bc they’re both Gay™ – lucretia especially enjoys teasing killian about carey with the “really great calves” from the gym.
killian accidentally said weird shit when first gushing about her and, of course, lucretia will never forget it
noelle was saved by the team from whatever the hell lucas ends up doing in this au. carey offers to share her room, esp since magnus is uh. working a little more irregularly these days and they could use the split rent.
noelle and carey also talk about girls, including killian who could “probably throw me across a room” from the gym.
angus was looking into all this nonsense and figured it was easiest to track down twins who seem to know a lot about chemistry. it wasn’t too hard. taako and lup were appalled that his parents Just Let Him Do That and so there’s a 50/50 chance that angus is in their spare room at any given time.
listen they got a two-bedroom apartment, but apparently they’re still too clingy to sleep alone. nerds.
ren is taako’s coworker and best friend. she knows Something is up, but isn’t entirely sure What. she also knows better than to try and find out. taako will tell her when he tells her.
honestly i low low lowkey dig the idea of noelle/ren but you didn’t hear that from me. if it happens to show up though. oh well.
avi makes frequent deliveries for the hammer and tongs, and is pretty tight with magnus. he’s even tighter with magnus’s dogs, which stay at the h&t bc his apartment is run by ruthless monsters.
johann is the town’s dramatic and overtalented musician, who is almost always in the background. i’m not sure what his deal is, but he sure is good at music.
hurley is a cop who keeps trying to figure out what is going on, but isn’t having much luck
artemis sterling is the very frustrated mayor
certain people are given powers by the hunger, a la hawk moth. these include gundren, magic brian, jenkins, sloane, the hammerheads, cpt cpt bane, lucas, etc.
the major manifestation of the hunger is john, but only merle manages to see him.
unlike miraculous, the hunger is dangerous to its hosts if they become disagreeable. the birds can save the people possessed, but it’s not easy.
there are Mysterious Third Parties that can grant additional powers
one is known as the raven queen. she grants kravitz the power to possess non-organic materials, as well as a scythe that can temporarily dislocate souls and do mild portal shit.
kravitz was a coroner trying to get a gig in the orchestra, but then he almost died and the raven queen resurrected him and he’s got a really strong sense of duty so he’s doing this now, he guesses. at least he still gets to have a normal life when he isn’t busy.
i like to think that after sloane rejects the hunger, the raven queen scoops her up and also grants the ability to possess non-organic objects. she was a good mechanic before, and is super good now. she gets hurley to give up on the whole investigation thing and join her and they live happily ever after, and also kick the occasional ass.
at first, RQ’s orders are to retrieve the light so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but taako persuades kravitz that the birds are able to use it to defeat the hunger once and for all.
after that, the mission is just to keep as many people out of danger as possible.
istus and pan can also grant powers, but i’m not sure how they’d fit in yet
more random facts:
taako, lup, and barry are actually at the same university even though they never see each other. the mascot is a mongoose.
at some point the bio and chem departments are doing a joint conference thing. taako and lup are wandering around while spamming the birds’ group chat with really awful memes with magnus. meanwhile, barry is trying his best to ignore his constantly-vibrating phone as he talks to a professor about something actually important.
do they find each other in this truly ridiculous way? You Decide.
lucas is in the same department as barry, and even though he’s kind of a genius, he is also. how you say. a dick.
ren and taako work as chefs at the davy lamp. ren is almost definitely going to own it one day, and taako is proud of her.
lucretia and magnus meet via carey and killian, and quickly become close friends. because magnus is incapable of keeping a secret from anyone he knows, she finds out that he’s eagle and so they now know each other’s secret identities.
anyway that’s all i’ve got for now, thanks for coming to my ted talk
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