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lavenoon · 10 months

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Kindled Spirits AU

Soulmate AU revamped with a Y/N <3

Basics: Soulmate bonds are 1) not necessarily romantic, 2) not a given and not always between just 2 people, 3) not necessarily reciprocal (rare, but happens) Basically soulmates are bonded via dreams - meeting within dreams, or dreaming of each other’s memories, anything in dreams is fair game Plays a year after the pizzaplex fire and given that I had the idea a good while ago none of the dlc is included in the premise, also bc this is based on an old self insert fic Y/N is extremely audhd because that I refuse to take out

Y/N has spent most of their life assuming they don’t have a soulmate, which is a relief because they’re plagued by nightmares/ stress dreams a lot. They got used to those, and when some other hazy dreams crop up later in life they don’t think much of it.

Then one night they dream of burning. An indoor playground, they stand in the middle of it, filled with hopelessness and self hatred they cant explain (the irony of Sun burning to death). They don’t feel alone though, and though they can’t see anyone else, they know someone else is there. It's both a comfort as well as agonizing, and the care for that other person is evident, despite the whole emotional cocktail. They go through the entire dream incapable of changing anything, and then wake up still feeling hot but also cold and clammy, phantom flames still licking at their skin. All while they cope with the idea that maybe they did have a soulmate, and that is now past tense.

For an entire year they go around thinking they witnessed their soulmate(s?) burning to death via dream, not telling anyone about it but carrying that guilt.

They move, and find a new job - the Pizzaplex is hiring! No one wants to be a security guard anymore after all that weird shit a year ago, so even though Y/N lacks the qualifications, they get hired. Rotating shifts, day (morning/ afternoon) and night. The first time they walk past the daycare, it flashes into flame - but no, that’s just coincidence. It’s the first indoor playground they’ve seen since then, it’s hazy dream memories worsened by guilt, it’s not the same.

Y/N befriends the daycare attendant, and the naptime attendant - they talk to Sun sometimes through the slide, and Moon usually bothers them on their security rounds. They do meet Sun first, after trying to be helpful throwing down some stray ballpit balls down the slide, and a curious Sun crawls up just to get a ball to the face. Y/N feels very bad about that, and given their lack of scripts for how to interact with animatronics, they just fall back on the scripts they already have. Sun doesn't seem to mind, so it's all good! Then one night they shout a belated "Good night!" down the slide, after the lights in the daycare have turned off, and barely avoid falling when suddenly Moon stands behind them, asking them just what they're doing. He makes his dislike of their flashlight promptly known, and then they have a menace of a shadow for their rounds.

That goes on for a couple weeks, until Sun asks them inside of the daycare to address a few concerns they could please relay to management?

And then the perspective is just undeniable. Y/N gets caught in the flashback, seeing it all burn again, and Sun startles them out of it. They don’t tell him. They can’t. But they realize that he’s been forced to work in a direct replica of the place where he burned to (temporary) death.

After that they keep trying to broach the topic of soulmates in general, but Sun and Moon are very much convinced that as animatronics they are not people, and they can’t dream anyway, so how would they have a soulmate? So silly!

Dreams and personhood are very connected in this AU - with dreams linking souls society just assumes that anyone without dreams is not a person. (Is this a societal issue for other humans who don't dream? Sure! People are people and will exclude others for any reason!)

Meanwhile Y/N starts having more dreams - they assume because now they live closer, actually met their soulmates, there’s less of a barrier to only have the super traumatic stuff make it into their dreams. In fact, they are kind of relieved that their usual nightmares are exchanged for extremely mundane “watching kids play in the daycare” or watching themself being bothered by Moon from his POV.

It’s a struggle trying to convince their soulmates that they are in fact people, while wondering if the bond is reciprocated because how would they tell? Sun and Moon can’t dream, there’s no confirmation that Y/N is their soulmate too! Lots of fear of rejection that’s holding them back here

But also some shenanigans at this time, like Y/N knowing that Moon follows them on their routes, and calling him out on it when he tries to stay hidden. He asks how they knew, and they bluntly reply “it came to me in a dream”. Moon laughs, then asks for the truth that they don’t know how to give after he rejects it so easily. They end up deflecting and he goes back to being a menace.

Also Y/N being somewhat anxious once they realize that Sun uses "friend" for many people (whenever they do see him interact with adults, which isn't often) and awkwardly ask for confirmation because oh no what if he's just being polite and they read too much into it? They almost regret it when he proves that Moon isn't the only menace and makes sure they know he considers them their friend after! Moon continues being a cat in his affections, so when Y/N asks him the same he ends up positively surprised, somewhat guilty (due to the secrets he keeps, and the danger he still believes he poses), but mostly ramps up the friendly annoying to the max

And then Y/N ends up impulsively telling Moon. He wants them to be joking - asks them to, even, to take it all back. When they refuse he reacts more in anger and accuses them of deluding themself, suggesting they need medical attention. They get angry then, too, because is he really telling them to go to a doctor after they confess something like this? It ends badly, with Y/N fleeing the scene and then avoiding both Moon and Sun for a good while.

Until Sun requests their presence about a “security issue” in the closed daycare, and Y/N goes even knowing he’ll want to talk. He’s concerned more than angry, but disbelieving all the same. Y/N’s patience is running thin when Sun, desperately, asks them just what they were dreaming about to be so convinced - what made them think they're linked to an animatronic like that? - so they tell him about the fire. They also tell him that they were telling the truth that one time with Moon. Sun (and Moon) get their own flashback, and Y/N ends up frantic, apologizing for bringing it up like that, while the boys are just terrified that

1) Y/N had to see that, experience it via dream

and 2) just what else could they have seen?

Moon in particular is terrified - he approaches them a bit later, asking about other dreams they might’ve had. Even says “they would have been nightmares”. He assumes that Y/N must have witnessed the virus induced murders and has no idea how to assure them that he’s not that, after he reacted in so much anger at their initial confession. His concern doesn’t really lessen, and more shifts upon being told that “I wouldn’t know, all my dreams are nightmares anyway”.

Mostly themed around growing closer after that, and working around “we don’t need to dream of you to know we like you, and we do!” as well as uncovering the past trauma Sun and Moon have gone through (and are going through, still trapped in the same building in a replica of where they burned).

Also Sun and Moon struggling to accept their personhood because if they’re people, then they are traumatized and were (and are being) mistreated for a long time, and that’s also hard to come to terms with. Some thoughts towards animatronic emancipation though I never got that far in the fic, so mostly comfort and slice of life as they work around the little bump in the road of their soulmate bond. Y/N opening up about their own dreams, and why it's so difficult to say they had any nightmares based on Sun and Moon's experience before the literal death experience not just breaking the ice but rather melting it at record speed

Would remain platonic/ ambiguous because it was very important to me that soulmates aren't necessarily romantic, and they all have bigger fish to fry than whether or not they'd like to go on dates - given that that's hardly an option while Sun and Moon cannot leave the Plex. The reassurance and relationship beyond the bond actually is the most important part, with Y/N admitting to both Sun and Moon and also themself that they enjoy having them as soulmates, of course! But they'd be friends with or without those dreams, given that Y/N initially approached them both before they even realized. Which is also a relief, because Sun and Moon do feel bad over not being able to confirm that it's reciprocated - they feel like it is, they want it to be (and isn't that the most important part?)! But they don't know. And that's okay - because they found each other, dreams or not, and they won't lose that <3

This is as much as I have right now, and as much as it'll stay for the time being! Enjoy <3

#post let luce #dcamv #kindled spirits #lmao have fun reading this whole thing is 1.7K words #and i mean. the doodles #speaking of.#my art #you can see the aroace (?) jumped out when I tried to make a soulmate AU I could stomach #needed to doodle something yesterday and just. kept thinking abt my year old abandoned self insert fic hfjdks #from before i even joined the public fandom too #felt like it'd be fun though #soulmate aus *are* fun but I also like looking at complications in them #so I made them hurt (:#a little. bc its me. so we get comfort #anyways yes #new au! enjoy! <3

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connecting-the-stars · 1 month

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Missed Opportunities:

While I did love a lot of the aspects of the finale, I walked away feeling a bit empty? Maybe confused is the right word.

I’m still not fully settled with the finally, maybe it’s the whiplash of seeing Omega all grown up, or Crosshair claiming that clone force 99 died with tech after so many episodes of his death never being acknowledged by him, or maybe the shock that CX-2’s identity really turned out be unimportant or needing to take a day and rewatch the episode again. But I do feel like either the pacing is what put me off or there were arcs we were following that end up being incomplete.

I’ve seen a few people bring up the missed opportunity that the writers had to really tear at our hearts with the lack of CX-2’s identity being revealed.

I just feel like it could’ve been a full circle if crosshair had been the one to change his mind and be determined to bring his family back together, to use the hope omega has shown him and given him, that he won’t leave his family. The show demonstrates his PTSD and his hesitancy to return to tantiss, and throughout the season it had Crosshair revealing more and more about the information he had about the tests and operations. We know that he was tortured and went through the painful process of reprograming that had failed on him, but it almost feels like the progression was leading to a bigger reveal, like he had this massive secret that he refused to share under any circumstance. That paired with the absence of any acknowledgment of tech’s death by Crosshair besides yelling that clone force 99 died with tech, when season 1 really pushed with the fault being on the empire, that crosshair’s loyalty to that authority being the reason the team was never the same again. He knows that he made his own bed and had to lie in it, the deep seated isolation looming over him throughout season 2 really hammered in how much of a mistake it was to refuse rejoining his brothers. The team was never complete without their brother, and you feel the weight when Tech pushes for Crosshair’s rescue. “He is our brother. We do not leave our own behind.”

Crosshair’s growth this season has been wonderful to see, and I feel like rampart singling him out to be “just like him” which he corrects just furthers this idea that he’s changed a lot, that his perspective has changed. Having Crosshair going through this journey of guilt and self forgiveness is so important, and I want that to be echoed to others. From “I deserve to be in here” to “none of us belong here.” Repeating omegas words. Wouldn’t it be so impactful to have Crosshair come face to face with his brother who had faith in him all along when he had been turned by the inhibitor chip and for Crosshair to be the one to hold out hope. For Crosshair being placed in Hunter’s position from season 1 being helpless to save his brother from the empire, forced to leave him behind, but this time they are not abandoning anyone, not again. From giving up ever rejoining his family, literally fighting to send a message that they should go into hiding vs. trying his best to bring his family back together. From tech always having faith, hope that his brother would join them once more, going on that horrid mission in the hope that they might gain info to rescue cross vs. it’s crosshair that has faith that tech will come back to them, standing in the face of death in order to bring his brother home. To not give up on each other, even when the empire has done everything to tear them apart.

The idea that tech’s sacrifice could be represented in his fractured mind, would hold weight to his fall. The clone that’s mutation is to have an accelerated brain functions and highly enhanced technology skills is now failing to remember keys details or who he even used to be. He has to rebuild himself, rediscovering who he was and who he wants to become. He’s not doing it alone, his family and Phee provide support every step of the way, helping him reconnect to memories that had been burned away. If cross still loses his hand, then both of them would be in a similar spot where they now have to become more than what they were originally programmed and created to be. Finding a new purpose, creating your own future.

I’m gonna give it a day, try to rewatch the finale without crying this time. The moment where Omega adjusts Tech’s goggles hit me like a plane crash, like damn.

(I really did love the epilogue showing hunter’s continued care and support for Omega, and her being so passionate about helping others. My heart really did want 4 seasons of this show, I just wanted more time with these characters. My heart was so proud of Omega, just like hunter was.)

#just some thoughts #I’m kinda emotionally drained #like seeing CX-2 just be speared and then forgotten immediately was like a sudden drop that made my stomach hurt #love the phrase that: Tech lives. He lives on in you.#but also the show is about this family constantly being torn apart from each others and for it to end with not All of them together hurts #thoughts aloud #tbb spoilers #the bad batch spoilers #tbb season 3 spoilers #tbb tech #tech the bad batch #crosshair tbb #the bad batch crosshair #really did love the chaos of the Zillo tho always fun creatures

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