An explanation
You probably wondering what is this about? Well, allow me to reintroduce myself: I'm @starbe4m, the admin/mod of this ask-blog.
Back in 2020 I watched markiplier playthough (as most of us did, im sure) of the henry stickmin collection and fell in love with the games ever since. AND because this is tumblr, ask-the-character-in-different-AU were starting to pop out. And I thought to myself "well I like Henry&co and like fantasy AUs, LET'S COMBINE THEM. BRILLIANT!". Bare in mind, I NEVER made an ask-au before, this was my first time doing something like this. I was excited and it did pretty well! ... And not even a month after I abandoned it. Why? It was a combination of multiple things: stuff from irl, loosing interest, artblock, all mixed up and I just …couldn't handle the pressure. Other fact is that I really didn't like how wrote the trio (felt way too OOC, especially Henry) or the worldbuilding. To this day, I'm still surprised on how people found my stuff remotely entertaining or even worth following, like it was so cringe.
And also the initial story I had in mind was as WAY above my art skill level.
So a couple years back I was thinking starting from scratch. But wanted to know if followers were interested what was the original plan that I had. And a couple did! I was planning to write it down but then some irl stuff got worse and I decided to abandon altogether. Until recently.
I'm doing better now, that's why I wanted to revisit and at least give some explanation.
First, why did I come back?
Nostalgia, mainly. I was looking back through my old art and remembered about this project lol.
So what was the original plan/story?
Before we begin, I need to explain why I chosed to do a magic AU. As you know, a lot of unexplained shit just happened in game (like some people just earthbending during the events of "Fleeing the Complex", Ellie able to use the force out of nowhere and Henry whole reload situation, to name a few). So what was my solution? "Oh it's just magic" trope! And that's how this blog was born.
Back to the story. In this universe, magic is channeled trough "runes". Depending on how you write those runes you would get different results. If the rune is damaged that spell would also disappear. (And full disclosure, I was unintentionally inspired by the magic systems in the Owl House and Witch Hat Atelier.)
The rule was that all runes were made by hand BUT there are exceptions. Some people could just naturally manipulate magic. This was due to the runes attached to their bodies. But they don't born with them, some take years to manifest.
These are called "gifts" and are regulated by the government. Meaning that every individual with "gifts" NEEDS to be registered or they'll suffer a penalty.
Enter Henry, just unpacking the rest of his stuff in his new apartment when an accident happens. As he's about to get hurt, a screen pops up: "retry?"
After this he comes to the conclusion that he can manipulate time (well sorta). And what's the first thing he does with his newly discovered powers? ROB A BANK OF COURSE!! Flawless logic. With the help of his bag he found in his previous apartment and several attempts later, he manages to get in the bank. But because he's not used to his powers, he passes out and gets arrested. Fun.
So he's stressed out because if the police finds out that he used his "gift" for criminal purposes, his sentence will be much worse. But his surprise, they found nothing. For some reason, his gift is invisible to everyone but him (but let's be honest, I was just lazy when I was writing that explanation).
After the events of "Escaping the Prison", Henry looks for more information about his powers. And he finds something terrifying.
You see, hundred years ago or so, there was a powerful individual called Balthazar who could control time and space. But he became so power-hungry that he managed to damage the space time continuum. So he was neutralised, and anyone with powers similar to Balthazar were ever to appear, they would be talken by the government.
This obviously put Henry into an panic attack to the point that he vowed to never use his powers ever again. This lasted 5 min before hearing the news about the tunisian diamond. Look it's fiiiine. Besides, he's not interested in destroying the universe so they're is no reason the government would be after his ass, right?! Hahaha...
Fast forward, after the events of "Infiltrating the Airship", "Fleeing the Complex" and "Completing the Mission", countless reloads and full of PTSD, things kinda calm down.
Until an agent from the CCC appears to arrest Henry.
For those who don't know, the Center for Chaos Containment appeared multiple times in the original games. Their mission is to "neutralize further escalation of chaos and terminate them" (according to the wiki). In this universe they are pretty much the same, dealing with with magic that the government cannot control. Fun fact: they were the ones who defeated Balthazar. And while Henry's case is nowhere near as bad, it did had some effect on the timeline, so the higher ups send an agent to investigate. Enter Derek <last name pending> (at the time his identity was just a concept), an original character specifically made for this story. Derek works at the space-time continuum management branch in the CCC and because he's the only one that works on that branch, he's assigned to this job. His investigation leads him to Henry and he's granted the permission to take him back to HC for further inspection.
This obviously doesn't go well and at some point while fighting all the timelines merge into each other. The rest of the story is Henry and the agent working together to restore the balance.
AND THATS IT. ALL I HAD WAS A CONCEPT AND I DIDN'T EVEN FINISHED IT. GAHHH IM SO MAD AT MYSELF.
(There was also stuff I had for Ellie backstory involving her uncle but I don't remember what was it about)
Suffice to say, this entire story was scrapped and I'm not planning to continue it.
I talked briefly about a "reboot" in an old post, was that about?
Nothing TOO crazy, just chill time. Mainly expanding the worldbuilding and stuff. Henry would still have trauma tho, he ain't escaping that.
I'm I planning to continue updating?
If people are interested, sure! I won't promise I'll be super active but if there is enough people send asks, yeah I'll happily come back.
Yeah, that's pretty much it. I'm sorry it took so long to respond.
