Invincible: Indomitable - AmberRae Headcanons
been dying to blab ab my favorite rare pair for a while and finally got around to coloring these sketches from November :) headcanons for rae and amber under the cut
Raven “Rae” Small
Nickname(s): Rae (preferred name)
Species: Genetically Engineered Human
Gender: Female
Age: Adult
Parent(s): Raymond “Ray” Small / Shrinking Ray (father) †
Partner(s): Amber Bennett (future girlfriend / wife), Rex Sloan (fling)
Children: Vincent “Vito” Gambini (future foster son), Kova (future adoptive son)
Additional Headcanons:
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Rae is a no-nonsense brick wall of a woman. She grew up with her father, Ray (aka the original Shrinking Ray), whom she loved and idolized deeply. After the passing of her mother, Ray decided to uproot their lives and movie to Chicago, as he’d been offered a great-paying job; the only catch was, he couldn’t physically be around for his daughter as much and he had to alter his own body.
Rae, who was only around 7 at the time, was super unhappy about the move and always questioned why they couldn’t just stay in Brooklyn. Ray was always quiet about the type of work he did, not wanting his daughter to go down that same path but Rae wasn’t stupid; she noticed her dad’s silly-looking suit. She eventually learned about his powers and on the rare occasions he was home, Ray always did something silly with them and made his daughter laugh.
Despite being raised by a GDA babysitter because of Ray’s random work schedule, Rae remained close to her father; he never made her feel forgotten or unloved and always left little notes or her favorite snacks each morning before school. While little things like this made her happy, Rae started asking more and more questions the older she got: when could she join the Guardians? Could she get cool powers like Dad? Ray unsurprisingly doesn’t want this for his kid, but isn’t exactly opposed to her learning how to defend herself. At age 7, Rae begins training taekwondo and it isn’t too long before she befriends a boy her age…he’s kinda weird and is a total nerd about martial arts, but he’s fun to talk to. Soon Rae becomes best buds with this kid, who she later learns is named Mark. Everyday at the after school program, she and Mark train together, steal snacks, and share dumb stories; they’re each others happy places for a bit. Unfortunately, there's a day where Mark shows up to the after school program and Rae's just...gone. He assumes she's sick, but after over two weeks of being a no-show, he realizes she's gone for good. Rae meanwhile really misses training with her new friend, but her dad ends up moving closer to HQ, meaning the dojo's too far for Rae to keep going to. Years go by and memories fade, and soon enough Rae doesn't even remember Mark's name - just that there was a boy who made her feel a little less small.
As Rae grows into a young adult, college really isn't on her mind the way society expected of her; she's still hellbent on following in her father's footsteps and becoming a strong hero like him. She still trains hand-to-hand combat, but Ray still won't let her join the Guardians or get powers like his. She's getting ready to graduate high school when tragedy strikes: Shrinking Ray had been killed during a fight with the Maulers; even more of a blow, the Guardians are mysteriously murdered not even a week later. Grieving and furious, Rae decides to approach the director of the GDA herself, Cecilia, and all but demand she give Rae powers and explains that she wants to try out for the new Guardians under the name Shrinking Rae. Everyone had seen Ray as nothing more than a joke because of his goofy, aloof personality - the same one that had gotten Rae through some of the hardest parts of her life. She vows to show the people to put some respect on her late father's name and prove to them that Shrinking Ray was just as honorable of a hero as the original Guardians.
Rae doesn't stay a hero for all that long, maybe a year or so, before she, Rex, and Kate get nearly killed by the Lizard League. After being in recovery, Rae is faced with a choice: either go back out there and keep shining light on her father's legacy, or quit and live out the rest of her days as a regular human - ironically what Ray had wanted for her all along. Rae chooses to quit and studies graphic design at Upstate University, only staying because her friends are there.
After healing, she and Rex grow very close and trauma bond together. They end up having a very short-lived fling / FWB thing for barely a month before realizing they're better off as friends.
Rae and Mark end up reconnecting after both happen to join the Guardians of the Globe, remaining super close from then on.
Once she and Amber get more serious after graduating college, they move back to Rae's hometown where Amber continues volunteering and helping the homeless community and Rae works from home as a graphic designer. They end up staying in Brooklyn and eventually raise their family there.
The colors on Rae's hero suit design are kind of an abstract interpretation of the Statue of Liberty, which started off copper and faded into teal over the years. She insisted on having some sort of reference to her home state in her costume. As a citizen, Rae wears a NYC subway shirt that ironically has the R Train on it, which runs from Brooklyn to Queens.
Amber Bennett
Nickname(s): Ambie
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Age: Adult
Partner(s): Mark Grayson (ex-boyfriend), Rae Small (future girlfriend / wife)
Children: Vincent “Vito” Gambini (future foster son), Kova (future adoptive son)
Additional Headcanons:
Amber's super easy to talk to and often find themselves venting and sometimes trauma dumping to her because she'll just sit and listen for hours, but not without giving the person a reality check and/or her opinion if they ask for it.
She's not very easily impressed - to Amber, action speaks louder than words. Someone (mark) can tell her they respect her for hours on end, but she needs to see the person actively working to prove that themselves.
Even after her and mark breakup, she still respects and genuinely feels for him; he's been through a lot and while he might not have been the most present partner, he dealt with a lot. However, she got to the point in their relationship where mark's self-deprecating, constantly negative, unintentionally absent traits were enough for Amber to make the choice for herself that she needed to leave, feeling like the aforementioned qualities were negatively affecting her own mental health.
Amber loves astrology and reads up on it in her free time. It just so happens that her favorite color, teal, is also a similar color to her birthstone, blue zircon, which she wears in jewelry on her necklace, earrings, and nose ring.
It takes her a while after the breakup to fully start believing that she deserves to exist in spaces that validate her as a full person, not just someone reacting to and getting roped into someone else’s chaos.
she has a huge heart and always cares for the community. Amber helps create evacuation procedures and damage recovery plans for neighborhoods affected by hero battles, even traveling out of the country to help. She ends up building a very strong familial relationship with some of those affected, even going as far as to check in on them occasionally via a call or email.
Amber swore she'd never date a superhero again, which she stuck to for a few years...till Rae came into the picture and unintentionally offered a new perspective, as well as some much needed emotional maturity (though Rae's a retired hero at this point).
Close-Ups:
