The tiny project’s finished >:’) It’s a slightly au hybrid of “Sidestep goes to the opening gala in their own body” and “other potential Sidesteps have escaped and become not heroes but other important people”.
Below are the steps with their respective owners.
Lyuba Voronina - my silly step with a groovy adibas suit with shoulder pauldron things and other neat stuff. (based on a pic from the internet)
Nicked @iamkatsudone’s Aidan for a little Steel/Sidestep/Ortega fic :O
Nothing spooky here, just some m!Ortega, m!Sidestep and fluff
Aidan had been used to hard bunks, once. Rickety old things that loved to creak and shake when the person - tool, robot, re-gene - beneath him chose to turn in their dreamless slumber. He would climb down every morning, or so he had liked to assume despite the abject darkness outside, and the thin metal rungs of the ladder would always cut into the bare soles of his feet as he descended. What a wake-up call.
The floor almost felt like an improvement since then, surrounded by other breathing bodies, huddled in the midst of their collective warmth. A quiet hand on his shoulder - no, don’t panic, it’s just Joan - and he would fall right back under, running from the flickering shadows in the corners of his psyche.
Then, he got used to futons, or whatever he could afford on an unofficial hero’s salary. He was young then, could shake off the backache and keep going. Keep going despite the grief. Keep going despite the pain. Just keep going.
The memory of the first time Aidan had slept in a real bed had been scrubbed from his mind - some lonely, bleak thing in an empty apartment. Barely worth remembering, so he hadn’t. Instead, he had imagined clutching just that little bit tighter to the pendant he wished he still had around his neck, beneath his clothes, the one thing under there he had never wanted to hide. The one thing under there that had ever brought him comfort.
Because no amount of pillows or duvets could be balled up and stuffed into the hollow of his chest. Not to fill it up. Just more air. Air he had breathed out as he stared at the wall, knowing he wouldn’t sleep that night, yet hoping all the same.
Waking up was a dangerous game, more so than that of finding a bed. Nightmares muddled the spaces between wakefulness, playing with him all rough n’ tumble before spitting him out on the other side, chewed up. Sometimes he would awaken drowning, other times on fire. Other times Aidan would awaken only to find himself asleep once more, lied to by his own mind. So much for controlling those of others.
So when Aidan woke up on some nondescript morning, sun already high behind the curtains, he weren't quite sure what to make of it. He was warm. His heart wasn’t hammering in his chest, not yet, and his first conscious breath was a slow, long thing. Then the bed beneath him shifted and his mind began to tumble, cascade, careen-
“… You awake?”
It stopped, and his breath did too. “What,” before starting again, “Yeah.”
“How’d you sleep?” a second voice, this time from somewhere beside him, rather than below. Ortega, he remembered, and relaxed a little more. Only a fraction, yet Ricardo still noticed and smiled, “I’m glad.”
Wei, gentle as always, shifted Aidan off his chest, towards Ricardo. But his arm immediately flopped over him again, a welcome weight - grounding, if he hadn’t still been half asleep. Not the same half-awake state that left him shuffling along a liminal space where nightmares and reality blended dangerously. It was warmer, softer - the unconscious side held no demons today.
“Anyone dream?” Ricardo spoke again, always the most talkative of the three. The implications were blistering, but he beamed when both Aidan and Wei shook their heads. A little victory!
He pushed his face against Aidan’s back, pulling him into a quiet hug, “Isn’t it wonderful how neither of your schedules have anything on them for today?”
“Ric-“
“Nothing except ‘stay in bed’ from nine until noon.”
“Ricardo,” Wei sighed, but it was coloured with such fondness that the reprimand, if any, was instantly lost. He rolled closer to Aidan, stretching out his arm so it included Ricardo in its embrace too.
“I, for one, agree with Ricardo.” finally awake enough to manage a sleepy mumble, Aidan spoke with a softness neither Eden nor Revenant could ever have managed.
“See, we’re the sensible ones here, Wei.”
Another sigh, heavier - fonder - and the hug tightened for a moment before relaxing again. “Fine, just a little more, but don’t push it.”
———————————————————————————————————
That evening, they managed to co-ordinate resting on the couch, alternating between whose head was on whose lap beneath the gentle glow of the TV. Glasses askew, Aidan let his head rest on Wei’s lap, barely tilting it to watch the shapes moving across the screen, too tired to make much sense of what exactly they were. Plus, the tentative, tender weight of Wei’s hand on his head, meekly toying with his hair, only served to diminish his interest. That, and Ricardo’s warm hand resting across his ankles as he permitted Aidan to use his lap as a footrest. There were simply more important things to focus on, and for once, Aidan could do that in safety. In warmth.
okay y’all....I’m finally making a character information post for my Sidestep Aidan Basri, so here he is. I’ll put all this information in text format too. I’m going to put this under the cut and I’ll write a small bio about him along with the text version of his stats information because this will become a long wall of text otherwise. so here we go.
Name: Aidan Basri
Villain Name: Revenant
Gender: Male
Height: 5′9″
Description: An average Asian man in his thirties with grey eyes and shoulder length, straight black hair
Base Attributes: Aidan Basri is a tech savvy tactician
Telepathy:
Strength of Mind 67%
Subtle Manipulations 72%
Living standards: Comfortable
Psychological profile:
Infamy 49%/Obscurity 51%
Arrogance 30%/Anonymity 70%
Ruthlessness 18%/Empathy 82%
Daring 45%/Caution 55%
Puppet
Name: Eden
Description: A tall Asian man in his twenties with brown eyes and short, neat auburn hair
Status: Fine
Allies/Enemies
Ortega:
Aidan: 94% It’s complicated/Eden: 71% Friend
Mortum:
Eden: 35% Friend
Lady Argent:
Aidan: 19% Neutral
Herald:
Aidan: 20% Distant
Steel:
Aidan: 25% Former Ally
Scar: Suicidal Scar
Vice: Coffee
Expletive: Shit
Bio:
I don’t have all of Aidan’s bio really fully thought out yet, but here is what I do have. Aidan is a trans man, and he also has a limp that he got after the heartbreak incident. The Farm was never able to fully repair the damage done to his left leg from the fall, and if he is walking around for too long he needs to use his cane to help him walk, his hip and knee will also bother him when drastic weather changes happen, but usually not too badly that he's bedridden. he also deals with anxiety and depression and is selectively mute as well. he tends to talk more when he’s with people he knows and is comfortable around them. he also talks more when he’s possessing Eden and when he’s in Revenant. he also wears glasses for reading because he’s farsighted.
he usually keeps his hair in a messy bun or a ponytail, and in retribution he decided to get an undercut but keep the rest of his hair his hair the same length.
back in his early sidestep days he still wasn’t a huge talker but he was a lot more happy than he is now. he joked around with Ricardo quite often and had quite the stubborn streak. he and Anthema were very close and bonded over being trans. now, however, Aidan is much more reserved and soft spoken than he was before. he is a man who wants to pretend he doesn’t care about people, but in fact cares very deeply about the people around him and he hates himself for how much he cares. (oh also, a side note: back when he first met Steel, he was attracted to him for less than 30 seconds because Chen opened his mouth and said something rude and now that he’s getting to know him in retribution and starting to like him all those feelings are coming back) (also Ricardo was his first real crush after escaping the farm and they did kiss during the Psychopather fight and they had a weird FWB relationship that just involved making out).
Aidan has come to care about Dr. Mortum during his time working with him as Eden. he finds Mortum to be intelligent and easy to talk to most of the time. he’s considered revealing the truth to Mortum before, but he’s deathly terrified about what his reaction would be. it’s a good chunk of the same reason why he hasn’t revealed the truth to the rangers.
as for what I have of his backstory, he escaped The Farm at what would roughly be around the human age of 19 or 20, and for a while after his escape he lived amongst the homeless community of Los Diablos, the people still displaced because of the earthquakes that happened that nearly collapsed all of Las Angeles. Early on in his time there, he met an older homeless woman named Joan Basri, and she took him under her wing. She treated him like a son even after finding out he is a Regen (and trans). She had lost all of her family because of the earthquakes, so Aidan was all she had. Joan was a spitfire of a woman and commanded a lot of respect amongst the other homeless people who knew her, and she was fiercly protective of people she was close to. Joan was actually the one who gave him his name because he didn’t have one when she met him. she helped him pick out a first name he liked, and then gave him her surname. Joan pushed him to try and become a hero and use his powers of telepathy to help people instead of hurt people like The Farm had made him do. eventually, Joan got very sick and ended up passing away, giving Aidan a necklace that had been her great great grandmother’s. Ortega was able to save the necklace during heartbreak. the chain had broken when he grabbed it to stop Aidan from running towards the window. he had the chain repaired and has been holding onto it ever since.
now that Aidan is on the villain path, he has felt like he’s let Joan down and doesn’t like thinking about her much because it’s upsetting for him to do so. he told Ricardo to keep the necklace, not telling him that it’s because he doesn’t feel worthy of having it anymore.
Aidan’s villain motivation is justice and in retribution he is an anarchist. he wants to take down the farm and the government supporting it. he doesn’t like that he has to play this role and is uncomfortable with playing the villain, but if he needs to do it to reach his goal he will do it. he does not want to hurt innocent bystanders or kill anyone if he can help it.
my endgame romance for Aidan is with Ortega and Steel. and he’s the one I plan to give as happy an ending for as I can.
also, this is the hoodie that Aidan wears all the time during rebirth:
