name: cloud strife, “broadsword”, “strauss”
age: 16 - 25
weapons: firearms (trained, low proficiency) broadswords
occupation: ex-turk, fugitive, escaped science experiment
history: cloud is born of an affair between his young mother and president shinra. claudia, scarcely more than eighteen, flees midgar to protect her son from the shadow of his father’s legacy. she picks the most remote area she can think of and leaves overnight with a childhood sweetheart, changing her name to claudia strife. the childhood friend abandons her before they reach nibelheim, deciding a life on the run with a woman he loves is more glamorous in theory than it is in reality.
cloud and claudia are treated as outsiders and a scandal all their lives.
cloud leaves home at fourteen to join the shinra army. while absolutely dismal at long range weaponry, the boy quickly makes a name for himself due to his incredible close range combat skill and adaptability in the field.
during a mission to guard professor rayleigh from avalanche, cloud goes above and beyond and catches the eye of the turks. the boy is rough around the edges to say the least, but his determination and dedication to the job make him an immediate candidate for the turks. the boy is gunning to be a soldier but is rejected from the program due to his psychological profile being a poor fit and his body being incompatible with mako infusions. he barely has time to process the sting of being told he’ll never make soldier before he’s being offered a position within the turks, which he takes because he’d rather do that than rot in what he perceives to be mediocrity.
as a turk he excels. he’s loyal and dedicated to his teammates, though the more that goes on the more his faith in shinra wavers. his hunger to be noticed and accepted leaves a few raw spots and a temper that never really vanishes. he befriends zack fair after working with him on several missions concerning the mass defections within soldier. the two of them bond over their country upbringing and love for the outdoors.
at the age of twenty he’s selected for the nibelheim mission due to his intimate knowledge of the area. he stays out of sight for the majority of the visit, with the only notable exception being dinner at his mother’s place late at night. he’s there to observe and nothing more, believing this to be a simple mission.
unfortunately it’s anything but. he’s reporting that sephiroth has been acting off and requesting permission to issue orders to withdraw (which is met with refusal, hojo wants to see this through) when a firaga detonates within the center of town. cloud runs outside just in time to see sephiroth kill his mother, who dies pleading for her son’s life. cloud ends up badly burned in the pursuit.
from there, things play out as normal. a baseline human kills sephiroth. hojo collects his fallen samples. but there’s no turk to report the truth of what happened back to veld. the badly wounded survivors are both declared dead, leaving hojo free to torture and experiment on them, until zack manages to break them out and goes on the run.
but maybe things are different when its one of their own the turks are hunting.
remy’s team would be very heavily influenced by nostalgia and emotional attachment, not gonna lie about it. some of the later additions would probably be somewhat strategic but still mostly what appealed to him.
sylveon - ♂ bet you anything that eevee was his first catch as a kid and he hung the fuck on forever. no regrets.
feraligatr - ♀ how much would you pay to watch a ten year old wrestle a totodile for an hour? well. anyway.
krookodile - ♂ definitely went after a sandile with purpose when he was fairly young. saw them on an egypt trip and went absolutely bonkers in yonkers.
gengar - ♂ actually a kind of strategic pick, but also, of course he’d relate to the lil red-eyed gremlin of a pokemon.
arcanine - ♂ originally jean-luc’s, given to remy when he left home so that maybe someone with sense would be around. doesn’t quite fit in with the rest but is treasured anyway. definitely still has jean-luc’s judgey eye when the circumstance arises.
he definitely does doesn’t treat them all like his babies or anything :T
This AU takes influence from a few places, one of the largest is What If...? (1989) #66 in which during the attack on the Avengers from Avengers (1963) Annual #10 Rogue misgauges how long she can hold onto Thor safely and permanently absorbs him. This AU stops taking literally from What If after that point and starts taking more feelings and elements instead meaning:
▸ What happens to Physical Thor is up in the air and open to any Thor rper to decide.
▸ The incident in the plane never happens so Rogue does not accidentally cause the deaths of the Brotherhood.
▸ Rogue does not help Loki attempt to conquer Asgard
▸ Rogue does not become the new Thor
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: in What If #66 they state that physical Thor is dead and Rogue now is/hosts Thor completely. THIS IS NOT THE CASE HERE. Physical Thor is still alive and so the situation is more like what occurred with Carol. What exactly happened to him and his status is open to discussion with any Thor interested in this AU. Literally my only input on his state is just making sure it works with how her powers work.
After the Rykers Island breakout Mystique and Irene notice the change in Rogue and Irene seeing the possible outcomes urges Mystique to take her to a telepath for treatment.
They end up going to Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club to help Rogue manage her psychic instability. Putting the Brotherhood and Hellfire Club in an interesting alliance.
While Emma is able to do a lot to stabilize Rogue she is unable to purge Thor’s Psyche currently and has instead worked to keep him as contained and removed from the rest of Rogue’s mind as possible. This means a couple things:
▸ Since they share a body, regardless of her own worthiness, Rogue can still use Thor’s hammer because he still is, though she generally still prefers fists
▸ Given the right circumstances Thor is still able to break through and communicate with Rogue, influence her or straight up take over her body
How the two think about each other and the situation is up for grabs.
▸ Emmas are open to decide if she’s done some things to Rogue’s mind or implanted things past what was agreed upon. Some discussion required but I’m happy to allow some real bullshit man.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: who actually has Mjölnir most of the time is up for discussion with any Thor’s interested in the AU. She likely had it for some span immediately post absorption but after that it’s up for debate, just because she can use it doesn’t mean she has possession of it.
Despite her role as a villain, mutant supremacist and general all around asshole Rogue has been known to help out during massive events on Earth and Asgard, because hey, she lives on Earth too and she does feel kinda about trashing Thor’s life so helping Asgard occasionally is the least she can do.
( Basically if it’s something where Thor or Rogue was a big important reason things didn’t fail then it’s likely she or Thor was there in some capacity if there’s no logical way for them to manage without them )
For the rest, consider much of canon still remains loosely the same like the Brotherhood becoming Freedom Force, major events and things like that only that Rogue’s an anti-villain at best, never been an X-Man and Thor’s got....Problems. Deets will be shaped by rp.
NAME: Rogue (Anna Marie Adler-Darkhölme) ▶︎▶︎ ALIAS: Rogue ▶︎▶︎ AGE: 17-24 ▶︎▶︎
AFFILIATION(S): Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants ▶︎▶︎ ABILITIES: all canon abilities + the stolen abilities and psyches of Carol Danvers and Thor ▶︎▶︎ POINT OF DIVERGENCE: From day one basically ▶︎▶︎ OTHER: Outfit honestly probs looks most like her 80s Look or this (but minus the 2343523 Xs)
NAME: Remy Etienne LeBeau
AGE: 32
GENDER: Transgender man
SPECIES: Human
BIRTHDAY: August 3
NATIONALITY: American
BLOOD TYPE: A positive
HEIGHT: 6′1” (185 cm)
WEIGHT: 179 lbs (81 kg)
RELATIVES: Jean-Luc LeBeau (adoptive father); Henri LeBeau (adoptive brother); Mercy LeBeau (adoptive sister-in-law); Emil LeBeau (adoptive cousin); Bella Donna Boudreaux (ex-wife)
AFFILIATION: LeBeau’s
OCCUPATION: Executive Chef
EDUCATION: Le Grand Diplome de Le Cordon Bleu
BACKGROUND: LeBeau’s has been a fixture of New Orleans as far back as most locals can remember. A family-owned restaurant, it’s made its name by retaining affordable pricing and never skimping on quality or quantity, as well as keeping open doors for all classes of clientele. How they’ve managed to stay afloat is somewhat of a mystery, but one that most people don’t care to pry too much into. Through the generations, the family has remained either in the kitchen, in management, or both - down to the current one, which consists mostly of Jean-Luc LeBeau and his two sons, one of them adopted right off the street. Jean-Luc works as a mostly retired manager, with Henri taking care of the business’ financial demands; Remy is the one with the fancy culinary degree and a hatred of being hungry, and is in the kitchen every day. Overall, the family is normal enough and is well-loved by the locals they provide for, but late at night they may or may not be a select crew of thieves, their usual targets being corrupt organizations or individuals.
OTHER: Optionally opening a second restaurant in New York, leaving Jean-Luc and Emil to handle the original while he steals Henri and drags him across the goddamn country to do the books because he just can’t be assed.
Also known as the verse where Jean-Luc LeBeau went hey, you know what though? My kid is all grown up. I'm adopting this one. I don't care if it's a Veela. You know what would be really funny too? I'm going to make this kid my heir to piss off all the other purebloods and probably send them to magic school too. What are they gonna do, question me? I'm rich. Or, the story of how Remy LeBeau tries very hard to get through wizarding school and has to dye his hair every three days, tries not to burst into flames, and is a little tired of having to wear a Beauxbatons uniform even on exchange to Hogwarts, as it involves a cravat and he can be summed up effectively as a French blueberry.
TIMELINE
Jean-Luc LeBeau visits a Veela community in Hungary, offering a trade deal for Veela-made trinkets to be sold in his establishment in order to provide the village a way to rebuild after damages sustained in the war. He does this through a member of the community he had adventured with in his younger years and who in good standing vouched for him; the deal is accepted and contract-writing begins in earnest.
A few months into the agreement and on one of his visits, Jean-Luc witnesses his old friend’s daughter have an illegitimate child and attempt to pass it off to her mother, refusing to take responsibility for it. Adelaide is uncertain, and Jean-Luc offers a compromise, promising to take the child and raise it as his own, as his only son is now an adult and he has plenty of time and resources. Eventually the family agrees, and Jean-Luc takes the child back to France with him, calling in several favors with the Ministry in order to register the baby Athalie as an orphaned Muggle-born witch and adopt her* as his own, also placing a falsified Trace that will not react to any Veela-specific magical use.
Jean-Luc promptly learns that Veela babies are rather volatile, and is forced to come up with many, many excuses as to why he is repairing numerous singed portions of his home, but dotes on his new daughter anyway.
At around the age of seven, the first signs of dysphoria and distress begin to emerge, and while Jean-Luc and Henri have no prior experience with these matters they encourage Remy to express himself as he pleases. Ministry records are altered again to reflect that he is male.
At age eleven, Remy enters Beauxbatons as a first-year student, as per his request. He makes the clear decision to remain in the wizarding world rather than return to a Veela community and in fact decides that he will take over the family business later, much to Jean-Luc’s delight, and is named heir to the LeBeau house. Having developed a complex routine to perform nonverbal magic but disguise it as best as possible by simply speaking spells in class and wearing a glamour to color his hair, Remy is able to start passing as a mediocre wizard. He keeps a cat named Oliver, who suffers the tragic fate of always wearing a very large bow round his neck.
In his third year, Remy becomes a Chaser for the Beauxbatons Quidditch team. He also hits puberty, resulting in natural Veela charm emerging and leading to more than a few awkward confessions from his classmates and silently confused male students.
At fifth year, Jean-Luc requests (and is granted) permission to allow Remy to study as an exchange at Hogwarts under premise of wanting him to be comfortable internationally with other wizards, as he will be running an international business. The length of his stay will vary according to interaction, but the default is set to one academic year.
Remy eventually scrapes by as a mediocre wizard with a specialty in potions and an odd proficiency for fire magic. After his graduation he takes over as proprietor of LeBeau’s Curiosities, with his older brother Henri taking care of finances and his father often running the shop while he travels seeking new inventory. His overall reputation is that he is very attractive, a bit odd, but pleasant, and while a few people may have their suspicions, they don’t attempt to pursue them.
* Remy is referred to as female and birth name here as he is an actual baby and has not grown to an age where he can express his identity, and so this is what his father called him prior to that point, obviously.
ASIDES
Can be set in a few different time periods for convenience, but typically hovers at the end of the First Wizarding War, meaning Remy’s birth was ~1971.
The LeBeau family is, more or less, essentially French pureblood royalty in the wizarding world, having emigrated from Ethiopia about three centuries prior and in excellent community standing. This means that a - Remy’s adoption was an absolutely massive scandal, particularly because Jean-Luc claimed he was Muggle-born, and b - he is unfortunately quite used to attempts at matchmaking as the attractive heir to a very wealthy home. Part of the reason he decided to go to Hogwarts for a bit was to avoid the Boudreauxs’ pushing for an arranged marriage.
As a Veela, he has a few more struggles and a few less worries than your average wizard. For instance, most magical creatures will not attack him - he is perceived as very pretty and generally harmless to most of them. (Though by contrast some may wish to keep him, which can be equally problematic.) He also has an affinity for fire magic, and an unconscious charm that makes him rather appealing to most people. His dance and song, were he to exercise them, would be literally enchanting, so he doesn’t. He also has a very quick temper that he isn’t able to express without outing himself as a magical creature, and thus struggles to keep it in check, meaning sometimes he just storms off without explanation. He also tends to be excessively snarky because of this, as he’s generally on edge to at least some degree.
According to canon lore, Veela are predominantly biological female. One possible reason that they are so seductive to (particularly AMAB people of) other species may be due to this imbalance, which might have simply been the result of evolution through the years. Since they are already known to be compatible sexually with humans, it’s also reasonable to assume that they’re compatible sexually with most humanoids, possibly as an innate method of species preservation, whether or not it is exercised.
His hair grows quite quickly and dye doesn’t last long in it at all, but is more practical than expending energy on glamours constantly, so after his first year he simply learned to cut and dye his hair every few days. If he forgets to, silver-blonde roots may be visible and lead to questioning.
In order to have a passable wand at all, the family had to commission one made with Remy’s own hair as the core. (Ollivander would be horrified.) As a result he is somewhat able to channel through it, which helps him scrape by in spellcasting courses, but the scope of his natural abilities does not change and his affinities lie mainly in pyromanipulation and magic to do with appearance, though he is capable of other minor feats such as extremely basic telekinesis and some divination.
Remy has found that Muggle medical science does not appear to work on his physiology, and that any gender reassignment in magical terms is beyond his capability and his family’s, so it should be noted that he has not changed in body whatsoever and so just binds his chest and expresses as male, with glamours to reflect facial hair and the like later in his life.
LeBeau’s is a traveling magic shop that appears in set locations all over the globe without a set schedule (because Jean-Luc is petty and likes watching snooty aristocrats trip over themselves to buy the fancy things before he disappears again). It is known for having a knack at recovering lost family treasures, and does offer less powerful and pricey trinkets for more casual browsers, much to some patrons’ dismay. Locations include: Diagon Alley, a Moroccan market, the New Orleans vodun community, Hogsmeade, Paris, Cairo, and a few more.
Triwizard plotting is also available, with Remy either as a competitor or accompanying hopeful.
tagging @prctettcre since this is your fault; i feel like @noxtm may have asked me about a verse at some point and my sad, tired butt didn’t get around to it. and @deviltoothed ’cause i tag you in everything.
tiny dump of further supernatural au headcanons more geared to the show canon mostly bc @prodigil has me on a kick and never asked for this i’m sorry danny;
he’s technically a skinwalker rather than a shapeshifter, though saying ‘shifter’ colloquially as a lump term for creatures with shape-changing abilities is more common practice because it’s just shorter. he doesn’t mind being called a shifter, but if he’s mistakenly taken for a shapeshifter he’ll get very prissy about it. no nasty skin-sheds here, thanks very much.
he does not display very strong animalistic traits typically, other than a vaguely ‘catty’ attitude that is pretty well within the norm. he’s grown somewhat complacent, given the fact that his family is very established in the local scene and give no trouble, meaning they haven’t been hunted. this means he’s a fucking idiot sometimes when his life’s in danger, and less conscious about hiding himself than he likely should be, though he’s still very thorough.
he is a very pretty red maine coone, which is why so many people stop to pet him. he pretty much always takes his breaks in the alleys near lebeau’s, and he doesn’t wear a collar, obviously, which is why so many fucking people just pick up the nice kitty and take him home after a while.
his day job is being head chef in the family restaurant. it’s a complete fucking disaster, mostly because he’s so goddamn lazy he tends to arrive late (sometimes not at all if he oversleeps) if jean-luc doesn’t physically haul him there. jean-luc is the owner, henri does the books.
on a completely unrelated note, sometimes locals will witness a massive black great dane hauling a thrashing red maine coon down the street at ten in the morning, which is when lebeau’s starts service prep. like every fucking day.
while jean-luc, henri, and the rest of his adoptive little pack ‘family’ are skinwalkers by blood he wasn’t. he was originally a human child - he wasn’t bitten, either, he underwent the ritual that’s referenced in show canon extensions completely voluntarily (for his eighteenth birthday, actually). he didn’t like being so different from his family. of course, turned out his animal totem wasn’t canine like the rest of them, but he still feels much more like a proper part of the pack.
the lebeaus and co. weren’t the more domesticated brand of skinwalker that we see with like, lucky in season six, and all of the plotting to turn humans by living in their homes by that particular pack leader. they have legitimate day jobs and their more animalistic common quirk is just living in a really large house so they can pretty much just pile on each other and shift forms as they please. it’s like a really affectionate, constant dogpile. literally.
the lebeaus and extended family are varying types of dog skinwalkers, mostly domesticated breeds. for instance, jean-luc is a great dane, henri is a pit bull, and mercy is a big ole poodle. the pack is mostly just family, though there are a couple exceptions - for instance, nil is a ferret, and then of course remy himself. there’s currently 14 members.
the pack does operate on a vague hierarchy, with jean-luc as the established alpha. remy as the designated alpha-to-be also holds control, though he tends not to exercise it because he doesn’t have the same instinctive connection to the role. henri and mercy are also fairly authoritative figures (though mercy is more forceful than her husband by nature) and nil is reasonably high on the ladder.
mostly as a side effect of being brought up by skinwalkers and then later being one, he has roughly zero modesty. clothes are work things. if he’s in his own space, he’s naked and that’s that - why bother struggling in and out of clothes if he’s going to be catnapping wherever the hell half the time? it actually really helped his early dysphoria as well, because society that doesn’t exactly place high value on physical form and provides close support constantly helped him deal quite a lot better with how he felt about his body until he got on hormones and had top surgery.
the boudreauxs are mostly hunters. remy’s already been married and divorced in this verse. (becoming something your wife is contractually obligated to murder constitutes as irreconcilable differences, right?) rogue was a human that picked remy up thinking he was a stray until he was pretty much forced to reveal himself before he went fucking insane over how much she was trying to feed him cat food and his family broke in to get him out. they dated for a little while but ultimately it was a mess and she moved away.
he steals all the time. why? well, he was on the street until jean-luc took him in, and he stole food to survive as a child. he’s also a lazy fuck in the present day and forgets his wallet and keys a lot. as a result, he fell back into the habit of petty crime and breaking and entering into his own home constantly, and sometimes escalates to stealing things like designer clothing and so on. for the most part, though, it’s more an impulse habit and not a life essential.
good fucking luck trying to get him into clothes if he doesn’t want to be in them.
uhhh hi so this is my petition for a verse in which maybe the human and dragon kingdoms are chill and border each other with an epic mountain range between them. except maybe the human king kinda pissed off the dragons, because, you know, no one thinks to double-check the party invitations.
well in retaliation the dragon king kidnaps the human princess, who is, oh, maybe five and exactly spunky enough to try and kick him in the nuts and declare that he is a prince, thank you very much, and he’s very tired of his parents sticking him in dresses, and honestly? the dragon king was kind of intending to return the kid after like a week just to send a message but he’s fucking hilarious and his couple of kids are already way grown up so he just keeps the tot.
and anyway the story of the lost princess becomes an epic myth, and whoever so dares venture off to claim her (tm) and bring her home will be the mightiest hero, or whatever the fuck, right? and the human royals keep trying to have another kid but no dice. probably because they fucked up multiple invitations and had their bits cursed or something. seems like something that would happen.
and anyway the years go by and they’re getting pretty desperate so they start enlisting a whole bunch of people and one of them is muse b, who’s anything from champion of the realm uwu to a cobbler, who gives a shit? this is a fairy tale and it’s the moral righteousness or absolute dickheadedness that’ll carry them through.
go bring back the lost princess who we’re pretty sure is alive, maybe, there were probably some sightings and yeah, this is really sketchy and we shouldn’t be sending you but hey! we aren’t known for our care for our subjects. get out the way.
and here goes muse b, poor schmuck, and finally muse b makes it into the dragon kingdom after the shittiest hike ever (fucking armor, fucking horses, fucking mountains, cold ass motherfucker) and aha, there is the mighty dragon to slay!
yeah, except muse b just got punched the fuck out by the lost princess (tm) who is most definitely a prince and actually pretty hot, and his name’s remy, and you wanna say princess to his face again? thought not, bitch and it’s all very confusing and apparently he’s been adopted by the dragons ad they’re all actually pretty fond of him (he even started a game where they all steal from each other’s hoards), and yeah, stupidhead, of course i checked out the humans. i know who my parents are. it’s pretty fucked up over there, non?
and poor muse b is stuck here with a rather amorous dragonling prince who seems pretty determined to charm their socks (or pants) off, and the oh-so-scary dragon king is constantly making the world’s worst dad jokes and laughing and trying to set you up with his tiny human son, and what the hap is fuckening, honestly?
and honestly the system of governance is still kinda weird but it’s a lot better and there isn’t a weird class divide and muse b is kind of starting to want to stay, the dragons are pretty awesome and maybe they’re in love with this lost prince asshole, or maybe they’re best friends now, or both, except there’s x motivation back home to bring remy back, but also?
this just isn’t your average fairy tale. choices, choices.
