right. so.. the sentinel and guide trope has me by the throat. that’s mostly where this au stems from. my favorite author has infested my writing now. so this is where this brain child comes from. i try to keep most of my fiction non-romantic.. but in my mind, while sentinels and guides can be platonic, they’re normally not.
quick trope run down just in case anyone unfamiliar stumbles upon this!
sentinels have heightened senses. think microscopic vision, they can see the individual fibers of fabric. maybe even see things on a molecular scale. supersonic hearing, they can hear something on the other side of the country if they can focus on it. (<- very important piece of information) they can sort through flavor profiles like a champ. is that the faintest whiff of poison? they know they sniffed that shit out ages ago. what’s that? the poison was odorless?? totally lad, odorless to YOU. they’re also buffed to high hell. (i got carried away sorry.)
anyway, just super heightened senses. however, i’m sure we can all see how this could be a pain in the ass. it sounds overpowered, which is exactly why there’s such a huge nerf. the ability itself. sentinels are vulnerable to sensory overloads. they can just blank out and get trapped within their own minds. this is, without a doubt, horrible to experience and just horrible generally. overuse, or simply trying to push the limits, of their abilities will induce a spike and then they’re essentially fucked.
this is where guides come in. the whole sentinel and guide trope usually overlaps with the soulmates trope, because of how intertwined and intense the bond between a sentinel and guide is. it’s often described as almost psychic. once bonded, they start sharing each others emotions and certain thoughts. like they can feel each others feelings type of thing. ANYWAY. guides are needed for the sentinels to be able to utilize their abilities to the fullest. additionally, they’re there to be a grounding force. their presence keeps the sentinel focused and present and out of their fucking minds. they prevent the blackouts associated with the sensory overloads by simply being there. they’re the rock basically. they’re a team. big thing, that is. one isn’t more important than the other. they work together.
main point, the sentinel is important yes, but they’d be useless without their guide. vise versa, a guide’s ability would be useless without their sentinel. (this doesn’t mean the individuals are useless it means their roles would be useless.) additionally, sentinels can use their abilities without a guide. it’s just dangerous and ill advised. before they meet a guide it’s like their true powers are locked. yes, they have the same heightened senses, but they can’t access enough of it to do certain things because they have a cap on how much they can use. this is so until they meet a guide (any guide, even if it’s not their guide) they can’t go into the sensory shock shut down state.
i think i covered it.. i tend to ramble so properly conveying ideas that spawned within my mind is always a task.. therefore if there are any questions about the world / universal setting, shoot an ask!
that being said, i don’t think i have to tell y’all who has what role or what the pairings will be. you guys know.
i’ve further decided that this isn’t enough and they don’t have enough things to worry about. so i gave them more super powers. yay!
this loser was originally gonna get something really cool. (he was gonna be able to manipulate his body to make it into a weapon. like he could make his saliva poisonous or make his blood corrosive or even make his bones into weapons like yknow? nooooo, i scrapped that and DIDN’T give it to nick like i was also going to.) his ability is a rage state. he goes like fully insane and all higher thought is thrown out the window. he still has his strategical mind and he becomes invincible..(nothing can hurt him, besides himself..) however, he WILL hurt his teammates. he can’t reason between friend and foe. his only thought is exterminate. he will raze it all to the ground. he’s normally very successful in this state, achieving things full on teams couldn’t. he’s basically a one man army. besides the obvious drawback of him having no reasoning to care for himself / have any of form of self preservation he can’t pull himself out, someone else has to do it.
loser number two gets gambling as an ability. he has a deck of cards, of which there is no way to be able to tell what card you’re going to pull. the cards in this deck all have different things which they cause. except for number cards. sophist doesn’t know what they do. since i suck at building suspense i’ll just tell you. they aid the reality of which he believes will come true. if he thinks a million more enemies will appear the cards will work to help that come true. even if he doesn’t want that to happen. as long as he thinks that’s what’ll happen.. it’ll happen. the other cards do a variety of things. it’s a standard 52 card playing deck.. most of the time. see he doesn’t pick the cards they pick him. the deck is always in his possession even if he tries to chuck it away. it’s like riptide from percy jackson. sometimes he’ll reach for the deck and pull out a stack of tarot cards. no clue why. these cards also do different things. he’s very confused on how his ability works. that’s the point. it doesn’t make sense. wonderland, ooo aaaa. be amused. (he gave up on understanding it and just goes with the flow as we know him to.)
this fucker. instead of leaning into his luck, like i do everywhere else. we’re going to lean into his toxicity. his costume / outfit for this au is as always up to the reader’s interpretation. the only consistent thing is that he HAS to have a gas mask. (so do the rest of the crashers but it’s less of a feature of their designs / character and more a necessity.) he turns the air (yknow the thing everyone needs to live. something so inherently normal.) into toxic gas. like deadly toxic gas. like.. you breathe two lungfuls in and it’s game over. non-negotiable. that’s basically it. he can breathe it in he just keeps the gas mask for the people he loves in case it gets out of his control. it’s a control / fear thing. he can control the gas to an extent. he doesn’t secrete it. he changes the air so he can choose where to start the change. therefore, he can just leave an entire section. obviously this only delays the gas’ spread to that area as it’s fuckin gas and moves through the atmosphere without issue. he can keep the gas away, but that takes extreme and consistent focus usually coupled with a peaceful mind. not something you normally get on a battle field so..
vernias!! my king, he gets an ability space. he can just pop out of reality, into a little space bubble. nothing can exist within that space unless he permits it. however, he, and whoever he takes into that space with him, will appear in the exact same place in which they were as they disappeared when they return to this plane of existence. this makes him susceptible to traps if he uses it in the middle of a battle field. additionally, time doesn’t stop. people still age, ailments still progress, people still need sustenance, he can’t summon / will anything that doesn’t exist outside of the bubble into the bubble. he can’t create a cure for cancer that works in the bubble because it’s his world. that’s not how this works. he can, however, keep this bubble stable for what is essentially eternity.
guides and sentinels are rare, and guides and sentinels that can bond / match are even rarer. they’ve been abducted to become part of this super secret government agency where they fight all the evil sillies who use their powers for evil. oou so original. (nick and brent are there voluntarily, because they were found in their early youth. it’s easier to locate sentinels as they’re more obvious. guides are a lot more lowkey as their ability branches off of a sentinel’s. i might expand if there is demand. not too sure lol.
@toadettely here u go.. i meant what i said about this being just as much yours as mine lol.