This is less of an ask and more of a it's good to see you back, really missed your bad batch drawings!
But while i'm here, what do you think the favourite video games of the bad batch would be?
Ahhh thank you so much! I've actually got a new little comic in the works. Haven't been able to work on it this past week due to a little cold and holiday family obligations, but i'm feeling much better now!
To answer your question:
Gingerbrave would enjoy Minecraft. Especially with mods.
Wizard would either enjoy a tricky puzzle game like Animal Well or strategy type games -- specifically anything that would allow him to outsmart an opponent like a card game or chess.
Wild Strawberry would either want anything Dark Souls or Souls-like for the challenge aspect OR something with pvp multiplayer that would allow her to insult someone over text chat or in-game vc. Like League of Legends.
!! PLEASE READ EVERYTHING HERE BEFORE SUBMITTING AN ASK JUST TO MAKE SURE YOUR QUESTION HASN'T BEEN ASKED BEFORE !!
Everything linked here pertains to the AU itself. Stuff like fanart for the AU will not be linked here but can be found under the #bad batch tag on my blog.
Please note that as I expand on this AU concept, certain things are subject to change. Also please note that a lot of these are in order of when they were posted.
Initial AU Concept Post <== Where it all began!
FICS || AO3
1 || 2 || 3 || 4
General Worldbuilding:
1 || 2 || 3
"How does X feel about Y?" Asks:
1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10
About the Batch:
1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11
Gingerbrave's Backstory:
1 || 2
Wizard Cookie and His Staff:
1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8
Custard III and the Republic:
1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5
Beast-Yeast (so far):
1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6
Misc. : (Shitposts and other little odds and ends)
1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12 || 13 || 14 || 15
I wonder has Azure Wizard Cookie wanted and or tried to experiment on BB Gingerbrave or at least want to study him
“Say ‘ah’.”
Gingerbrave made the shortest little “ah” noise before snapping his mouth closed. He sat there, pretending to look innocent. They haven’t even been at this for ten minutes and Wizard Cookie already felt his jam pressure rising.
“You didn’t say for how long.” Gingerbrave grinned.
“You know exactly what I meant, Gingerbrave.” Wizard ground out between clenched teeth. “If you’re not going to cooperate and waste my precious time, then get the hell out of my lab.” He gestured toward the door with his staff. The flame mirrored its master’s flat expression.
At that, Gingerbrave pouted. “No, I wanna get this over with, because you’re just gonna keep bugging me about it!”
“I keep bugging you about it because you keep wanting me to play zombie doctor!” Wizard snapped back. “Unlike me and Wild Strawberry, you can’t be on the receiving end of healing magic. How am I supposed to make sure you stay in one piece if I don’t even understand what’s keeping you together in the first place?!”
“I dunno. Guess?” Gingerbrave crossed his arms and looked the other way. “You’re good at guesstimating stuff like that.”
“That’s stupid and you know it.” The shorter cookie scoffed before fidgeting with the magic implements on the table beside him. “Frankly, after all we’ve been through, I’m somewhat insulted you don’t trust me.”
“I trust you!” Gingerbrave’s attention snapped back to him in an instant.
Wizard Cookie glared from under the brim of his hat. “Then stop acting like I’m the wench who baked us and work with me!”
That seemed to strike a chord. Gingerbrave’s jaw snapped shut with a harsh click. His mouth pressed into a thin line and his hackles raised ever so slightly. The two boys glared at one another for a long tense moment. Gingerbrave didn’t need to blink, but he still lost the staring contest by breaking eye contact with a harsh ‘tsk!’
“Fine. Whatever. Just be fast about it.”
“Thank you.” Wizard Cookie rubbed at the spot between his eyes in exasperation. “Scarf and mask off, please. I want to do a full exam.”
He wasn’t happy about it, but he still obeyed. The scarf was folded carefully and placed to the side. The mask followed soon after. Wizard had seen the other boy without those accessories plenty of times, but he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get used to it. Gingerbrave looked wrong without them - his throat stitches exposed and his eyecings uncovered made him seem weirdly vulnerable. Like a Chocodillo exposing its soft underbelly.
Just to get it out of the way, Wizard Cookie checked Gingerbrave’s eyes first. Both reactive. No signs of cloudiness or staleness. He knew Gingerbrave’s eyesight was fine already, so he didn’t feel the need to test that.
Throat next. The stitches on the outside were holding well since they were redone that morning. Having Gingerbrave open his mouth revealed everything to be clean and normal as well.
(Of course, Gingerbrave snapped his teeth shut juuuuust missing the tips of Wizard’s fingers by a hair. Wizard merely scoffed at his smug grin.)
No sign of mold or fungal infection - as is typical in other undead subjects. Miraculously, Gingerbrave’s immune system seemed to be better than that of a living cookie. Most infections, poisons, and illnesses had no effect on him. Small blessings, he supposed. Dealing with a sick Gingerbrave sounded like it’d be a nightmare. He’d probably sneeze and his head would go flying. Funny, but annoying to deal with.
Joints were firm, no complications from the cracks he knew cut all the way through the limb. No sign of losing any feeling in the extremities either. All good signs.
All signs that an undead cookie should not have.
As far as undead went, Gingerbrave was a huge anomaly. There were plenty of zombie-like cookies back in the Witch’s Castle. Failed and discarded half-baked batches that the Witch would dump into the courtyard in droves. It was part of the reason why escape from the Castle had been so difficult. The undead hordes would attack anything fresh and devour them within moments. Having Gingerbrave on their side was a great boon, as they didn’t attack him, and his presence had seemingly masked Wizard’s and Wild Strawberry’s living scents.
Ah, the bad old days. Wizard didn’t miss those.
But, he digressed. Among the undead, Gingerbrave was far from normal. Most undead fell apart, either due to the magic holding them together becoming unstable, or they succumbed to natural staleness and rot. On those fronts, the brave cookie was stable. However, he did not heal.
If Wizard or Wild Strawberry got a cut or a crack in a fight, they could easily just bandage the injury and rest up until the injury healed on its own.
Gingerbrave… didn’t do that. At least, not without devouring half a feast meant for ten cookies. If he wanted to regain any mass he lost, he needed to eat. A lot. Their little group was always having a hard time keeping up with Gingerbrave’s ravenous appetite. But it was either that, or he crumbled to itty-bitty pieces.
To sum up: Gingerbrave wasn’t rotting, but he required a high calorie diet to make up for his lack of ability to heal. This trade off was most likely a consequence of the magic holding him together, but until Wizard actually took a look at it, this was just a theory.
And it was time for Wizard to do just that.
“Alright. Uh…” His hands hovered over the stitches on Gingerbrave’s right elbow. “Is it alright if I…?” He trailed off, a little embarrassed by the question.
Gingerbrave only rolled his eyes. “Go ahead. It doesn’t hurt.”
“I didn’t want to just take it off without warning…” Wizard muttered into his scarf as he carefully reached forward and began gently snapping the icing stitches.
“Oh, for the love of…” Gingerbrave yanked his arm out of Wizard’s grip before roughly snapping off the forearm himself. The pitch darkness of his spirit spilled out, connecting the severed limb to the rest of Gingerbrave’s body.
He held his arm out with a flat look. “There, go to town. Just don’t drool all over me when you start prodding at the magic.”
“I do not drool!” Wizard snapped, but already he could sense the energy pouring out of the open wound and it was making his gut do backflips. Even without touching it, he could sense the magic’s power, and it made the hunger inflicted upon him by the Azure Flame Staff yearn.
Wizard could feel the staff’s gaze burning against the top of his head, but he ignored it in favor of gathering up one of the magical instruments on the table and beginning his investigation.
“You’re not one to talk. Don’t think I don’t notice the way you stare at Wild Strawberry and I when we’re cracked open on a battlefield.” It was only natural for the undead to crave the life powder in living creatures. Gingerbrave usually staved it off by consuming life powder through other means: normal food or going out hunting for cake monsters. But the hunger always returned eventually.
Consuming cookie dough was a line he wasn’t willing to cross. Wizard couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever be pushed to cross it one of these days.
Wizard’s statement made Gingerbrave pout and the other boy thankfully allowed the topic to drop.
Carefully, Wizard Cookie wove his fingers into the dark energy leaking from Gingerbrave’s arm.
Whatever type of magic this was, it was old, it was sturdy, and It was made to last. It was almost primordial in nature. Perhaps it was Nature Magic, but twisted in a way only a Witch could harness it. After all, Death was just as much a part of Life in the endless cycle of Nature. Grow, rot, repeat. It was fascinating. Wizard had never seen anything like it.
It was like staring into an artist’s masterpiece and not recognizing a single technique used in the brushstrokes. He had no idea what he was looking at. He could recognize the basics, obviously, but the techniques used and the shape this magic chose to take was totally lost to him.
“Damn it…” Wizard huffed and put the implement back on the table.
“Something wrong?” Gingerbrave quirked a brow, to which Wizard shook his head.
“You’re fine, but if the worst case scenario happened, I’m not sure if I’d be able to bring you back like She did. This… This is going to take a lot more than just one quick check-up to decipher. I need time, resources, research…” He trailed off.
Gingerbrave looked a bit frustrated at that. Wizard knew it was taking everything in the other boy’s power to sit still for so long. This was torture enough for him, so the idea of constant check-up’s bugged him.
“Don’t worry, I think I have a way for me to study this magic without needing your constant presence.” With that, the shorter boy turned to one of his cabinets and started shifting through its contents. “I had Chili Pepper Cookie help me get in contact with some folks in the Black Market. Cost me a bit, but I managed to get my hands on these.”
Wizard pulled out a small bag containing several mundane - but shiny - white stones.
Upon seeing Gingerbrave’s blank expression, Wizard explained, “They’re called Soulstones. These ones are empty, but they are capable of capturing a piece of a Cookie’s essence within them. Apparently just being in their vicinity is enough to fill them up, so empty ones with no essence are incredibly hard to come by and store. I want you to carry a few of these around with you for the next few days. Once they change color, give them back to me and I’ll continue my research.”
Gingerbrave tilted his head ever so slightly. “No more nagging me for these stupid research check-up’s?”
“Unless there’s an emergency, then no.”
With a grin, the undead boy happily held out his hands. “Gimme some stones then!”
A small pouch was tied up by a thread and Gingerbrave was now sporting a new necklace under his bandana. He practically skipped out of Wizard’s lab, happy to no longer have that particular obligation hanging over his head any longer. Wizard was left to clean up and a list of things he wanted - and needed - to do.
Clean the instruments used in the exam. Wipe down the tables. Check on that cauldron he’s had on a low boil for the past fifteen hours. He had books on shadow and death magic lying around here somewhere but they weren’t where he remembered leaving them. Did one of the Sugar Gnomes move those? It was probably Droopy. Droopy was always organizing his stuff, but he hadn't yet gotten a grasp on Wizard’s preferred style of sorting–
“Master.” The voice of the Azure Flame Staff pulled Wizard from his thoughtless motions.
“We’re not eating the magic that’s holding Gingerbrave together.” Wizard stated without even dignifying the flame with a glance. “You know as well as I why that would be a bad idea.”
“Death magic is a fickle thing, yes. I’ve tasted it once before. One of my previous masters took a deep drink of it,” said the Staff.
“And how’d that work out?” Wizard idly grabbed a cloth and started wiping up the crumbs Gingerbrave had left behind.
“She turned to dust.” If the staff had shoulders, he’s certain it would have shrugged. “But that was only because she took too big a drink in too short a time. There was not enough time for her body to recover. But you, my clever young master, have given us a wonderful opportunity…”
“We’re not drinking from the Soulstones. Those are for research purposes only.”
“Oh but master, the taste of it! I miss it so! Witch’s magic. We have not had it since the Castle. Not since burning the familiar to a crisp. It was divine, remember? The taste? The power? I want to experience it again…”
Wizard Cookie’s motions had slowed as the staff had spoken. Yes, he remembered the taste. The rush. The power. As the Reaper had burned, the magic that had held her together was absorbed into the staff - into Wizard. The memory of its otherworldly taste made his throat tighten.
“No.” Wizard slammed the rag down on the table with a trembling breath. “We will not touch them for the same reason we don’t drain Wild Strawberry’s time jumpers of their temporal magic: inconvenience. Anything that would otherwise hinder our goal to get our hands on the Soul Jam is off limits. Wild Strawberry Cookie needs her time jumpers to perform her role. And if I’m constantly asking Gingerbrave to fuel more Soulstones: that will hinder him. The energy kept in the stones must be returned to him at some point. I let you talk me into indulging our shared gluttony enough already, but this is not one of those times. Understand?”
Wizard turned to glare up at the burning eye on the end of his staff. It stared back at him - unfeeling. They held this staring contest for a long moment before the staff replied.
The group had no idea what to expect when stumbling across an old ruin. Some lingering monsters and overgrown homes seemed to be the extent of their findings.
Gingerbrave, starved from dwindling rations, decided to take matters into his own hands and slay a cake monster for sustenance. This act inadvertently rescued the local Sugar Gnomes from the threat.
Thrilled to see cookies after so long, and wanting to thank their hero properly, the Sugar Gnomes gladly offer their services to the wayward trio by doing what they do best.
i love the idea of gbrave with a souljam! what would his Light be?
The thing is...No one really knows in this AU since the souljam doesn't actually talk to him, he just found the souljam in the rumble while helping and simply used to help others.
Some theorizes what the souljam light is which leads to titles like "Rekindler of Hope" or "Wielder of the Brave Staff", this also leads to some misunderstandings down the line too
For a long time Gingerbrave keep the peace on Crispia by overworking himself and pulling many all-nighters, this created a nasty habit that became very noticeable by his friends.
Please Gingerbrave take it easy, you're not alone anymore! 😵💫
I have an Crk AU where GingerBrave is baked earlier and gains a souljam... right after the dark flour war, he helps a lot on the aftermath which is how he gains a souljam , whoever being a plain cookie he isn't recognized as a wielder and discredited most of the time
I affectionately call this the Ancient Janitor AU (Get it? Because he clean up the other's mess but his efforts aren't noticed?)
I want to talk a lot more about this AU since the other au depends on the current Crk story which is not enough for now (I will finish that comic btw don't worry) but if anyone is interested in this AU let me know 🥹❤️🩹
jacobvanloon
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