Thinking about the possibility of Alastor taking note of Angel Dust as a fellow performer, and therefore the closest thing he has to a peer among the group he's met in Hell. Angel may work in a different medium and specializes in a genre that Alastor doesn't personally have an interest in, but there would still be plenty of overlap for them to talk shop about. Badly written scripts and producers with overly specific tastes. Long hours and multiple takes while recording. The game of putting on a show and creating a brand to be known by.
(And the surprise of everyone else as he once more breaks the mould of the persona he's been wearing since he arrived in Hell)
I think that Side Effects AU Alastor would have an easier time getting along with Angel for two reasons. A) without almost a century's worth of memories he doesn't have quite the same 'there are no friends in Hell' mindset (though he is cautious) and B) Angel's own character development means he isn't coming off as relentlessly horny as he did when they had their first first meeting. Human Alastor is putting up more of a friendly, nonthreatening facade and Angel--who's already been shown to be curious about who Alastor is in the past--sees this as an opportunity to uncover the big creepy mystery that is Alastor.
Human Alastor does respect Angel as a performer, and as a sex worker. After all, his best friend Mimzy was a showgirl and they frequented the speakeasies of New Orleans which attracted people of various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, cops, gangsters, bootleggers, sex workers, and the queer community. And yes, there is that solidarity that comes from loving their jobs, loving the performing and the spotlight, but hating the fact that their managers/producers just see them as sources of profit and don't respect them or their work.
A scene I'm considering for the future is Angel Dust rehearsing his 'Losing Streak' routine and Alastor helping by playing the piano while Angel works in the choreography.
Prompt: Bun Ma briefing the first crew before their transfer.
Countdown to LTF's return: 8 days!
Ooooooh gurl how I had to resist chatting to you when I came up with this idea bc I wanted it to be a fun little surprise. 🤭 Enjoy <33
The door to the interim barracks burst open, and in walked Bun Ma with a regulation bag for personal belongings stuffed to capacity. Hifumi paused mid-sentence in her conversation with Nari, who turned around to follow Hifumi’s shocked stare.
Of all the possible outcomes from the commotion last night, this was something Hifumi never considered. This wasn’t some sort of unfortunate mistake; this was Zuko’s choice.
“Captain, I’m just going to-” Nari half-stood, waiting for permission to abandon her superior in favor of harassing her friend, who was already disappearing with Ju Long before anyone could bombard her with questions.
Hifumi waved Nari off. “I’m curious as well.”
No further words were needed. Nari beelined out the doors after her friend. A pained yelp carried through the doors before the slammed shut behind the three.
Zhen plopped down next to Hifumi, wearing a bemused expression. “How much you wanna wager this was Bun Ma’s idea?”
“I’m not betting anything on the obvious,” Hifumi said, rolling her eyes.
“You’re no fun,” Zhen grumbled, leaving Hifumi to corner Shen instead. Why she hadn’t started her wagers with him was beyond Hifumi.
There wasn’t much time for a decent pool to start before Bun Ma’s little group returned. Nari had a thoughtful expression as she gathered the majority of her department. She said something to them, then returned to Hifumi as if nothing was amiss. Ju Long scurried over to Koji and started frantically whispering to him, which wasn’t all off from him.
“What’s-” Hifumi started to ask once Nari was seated again, but was interrupted by Bun Ma climbing on top of a table.
“Attention Sazanamites! As you can see, I am here. There was a mistake with the initial paperwork,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows as she stressed mistake. “Seems Captain Asshole realized he forgot Princey’s bestest friend. Very tragic. He and I are very upset. Devastated. Never saw this coming.”
“Just keep talking, Bun Ma,” Shen heckled. “I’m not sure I believe you yet.”
“Hey, Shen,” Bun Ma cheerily smiled and flipped him off.
The few poor souls who happened to be waiting for their new assignments at the same time as the mass Sazanami transfer watched the spectacle in varying degrees of shock and horror. Quite a few glanced Hifumi’s way, having figured out she was the highest ranking in the room the night before.
“Get down,” Hifumi sighed. “Are we soldiers or children?”
Bun Ma saluted her mockingly and hopped down from the table. She immediately lost her balance, hopped a few steps in an attempt to catch it, then crashed into a few of her crewmates instead. The groans and curses soon overshadowed Bun Ma’s suspicious announcement.
Hifumi figured that was the end of it. Whatever scheme the kids had come up with, it didn’t involve her. But then Bun Ma extricated herself from her peers and bounded up to Hifumi with a grin.
“Hey, Cap, since we’re about to part ways forever and all, what do you say to treating your favorite seaman to breakfast in town?”
“Absolutely n-”
Nari threw her arm around Hifumi’s shoulders casually, as if it was perfectly normal behavior. “Oh, Captain, that sounds like a great idea. Treat your favorite ensign, too.”
Ah. So they were including Hifumi in their scheme. From the slight pinch in Nari’s eyes, she had not agreed to this particular tactic to pull Hifumi aside. That was on her for allowing Bun Ma to take charge. Biting back a laugh, Hifumi took pity on her favorite and only weapons’ head.
“Very well. I saw a cafe that looked worth trying the other day.”
Several hours and many, many pots of tea later, Hifumi had a full understanding of everything their young prince had discovered and kept secret until his friends confronted him. While Hifumi needed longer to dissect her thoughts about the war and her nation’s lies, there was one thing she was certain of:
Hifumi would support Prince Zuko. If he wanted to end the war, she had no qualms sharing his goal. She didn’t care about the Fire Nation’s victory anymore—she hadn’t ever since she lost her child. And she knew exactly which crew members would join them in supporting Prince Zuko, the reason Bun Ma and Nari pulled her aside before anyone else.
Zhao had made a grave error dispersing a crew full of deserters and the treasonous who’d found a new purpose in the young, banished prince.
“I am concerned as to how we’ll organize when the time comes,” Hifumi mused, swirling the dredges of tea in her cup.
Nari nodded. “I had the same thought. Not to mention who knows what other radical ideals the kid will pick up by the time he’s ready to challenge his father.”
Bun Ma’s grin did not falter as they expressed their concerns. She leaned forward and clacked a round tile in the center of their table. It looked suspiciously like a pai sho tile, in fact it looked a lot like a rare tile General Iroh preferred.
“Well, ladies-”
“We are not on that level of informality, Seaman.”
“Ugh, well, friend and Cap,” Bun Ma tapped the pai sho tile with her finger. “Dearest uncle happened to induct me into some sort of international secret society he’s been a part of for who knows how long. While no one else can write in or else I’ll be exposed for sharing the secret, everyone can keep up with whatever makes it in the bulletins from me and Uncle.
Nari said the thought going through Hifumi’s mind, “The general trusted you with this?!”
“I know right?!” Bun Ma threw her head back and cackled gleefully.
Hifumi could not begin to fathom General Iroh’s reasoning, but it worked out in their favor this time around. She picked up the lotus tile and inspected it. “How many of these do you think you can acquire before everyone is sent out to their new locations?”
Bun Mu smirked. “I’m resourceful. How many are we gonna need, Cap?
A slow, sly smile pulled at Hifumi’s lips. “Enough to give merit to our highest superior's concerns about his son gaining a political standing.”
In the Directors office Nimona stays in character just a bit longer, and the Director moves on to the next step of her "frame Ballister for another murder"-plan. Namely, calling in the guards and announcing the murder of Sir Goldenloin by the dastardly villain who broke into her office.
Toss up if Ambrosius is there with the first group of knights, or if he's one of the last to find out about his own supposed death.
@bookwyrmie replied to your post “urban fantasy AU where Pidge resorts to summoning...”:
My first thought when reading this was of an eventual reveal where Keith is captured or something, and instead of worrying Pidge just summons him back to the castle.
Allura finds out that while all of her paladins are Earthlings, not all of them are human first, when Pidge summons Keith through the Castle's barrier to her. Keith is standing next to her one minute, and the next minute, he's just gone. Haxus is struggling to regain his footing after he's nearly knocked into the ship's engines one minute, and the next minute he's being drop kicked into them by a paladin who definitely wasn't there a second ago.
(Pidge and Keith just sort of stare at each other for a hot minute afterwards. Okay, didn't know they could do that. Noted.)
They get Allura to keep the matter a secret, ironically opting to describe the situation as 'imagine if you found out someone you knew was secretly half-Galra. situationally the reveal would kind of be like that'.
Considering that the Ghost Zone seems to exist on a different timescale from the mortal realm, with beings that are functionally immortal/exist for a really long time, team Phantom could treat their mortal lifespans as a gap year of sorts (assuming they become ghosts when they die). No need to cross over to the land of the dead early.
So they decide to live life to the fullest, experiencing the world and not worrying overly much about consequences as they know where they'll end up in the end anyway.
Just picturing the mentality of well adjusted immortals, but it's a group of kids/young adults at the start of the journey.
FAM, I loooooove immortal shenanigans.
I always liked the concept of living forever, of being forever as you are and not have to worry about 'wasting time' and/or not meeting certain requirements to """succeed"" in life.
Once you are past that - the world is your oyster.
I can see Team Phantom taking it in stride. Learning you will live forever and have the rest of eternity to experiment and figure out what and who you want to be.
Learning not because school, but because a topic really interest them. Working because is fun and not because they need the money (idk I assume they do some shady stuff to get money).
Maybe I'm projecting because I do wish I could stop worrying about getting old and stuff, but I love love love the idea of Team Phantom living forever.
Is actually one of the themes I wanted to explore in a WIP I will eventually go back to!
How do you think each member of Leverage would go about convincing someone that magic was real? With backup from the team behind the scenes of course, but as the main grifter on the job
This is the best ask I’ve ever received
Eliot
He would do it begrudgingly
He would hate every minute of it but
Hardison would absolutely write out different types of magic and tell him to study
He just rolls his eyes and doesn’t and then when it comes down to it Hardison is basically saying everything
Hardison
This guy
This dude gets way too invested
Because he knows a lot about it because he’s Hardison
It’s not that he believes in magic but he doesn’t not believe in magic you know?
He would use science and be like “Scientists don’t know how this is possible so they called me, a magic expert, to examine it and it is indeed magic”
Parker
Yall my baby absolutely believes in magic and you can fight me on that
Throughout the whole con, she’s trying to convince the others and Hardison’s like “I gotchu girl” but the rest are like “okay, sure, Parker”
She would try literally everything that she could because its just so important that everyone else believes (see the Toy Job and Santa)
She would be like “here’s this magical situation” and Hardison and Eliot are like “babe you can’t just say stuff like that, how are we going to pull that off???”
Using magic to convince them was def her idea
Sophie
She doesn’t necessarily believe magic exists but she likes the thought of it ya know? Just thinks it’s a nice thought
She wouldn’t ever have a problem with selling it because,,, it’s Sophie but
She would kind of do the same thing as Parker but a bit more achievable
Nate
He would be very realistic and absolutely be no fun
He would hate that this is what they have to do
I just think he’d be so grumpy ya know?
He would roll his eyes every time Parker was like “see??? Magic!!!”
Something does happen toward the end of the episode something absolutely unexplainable happens and no one can explain it and no one knows how it happened and Parker’s just like “SEE???”
In your incryptid AU, what would it take for the cryptid team and the covenant to meet and not try to kill each other? a common enemy? both pretending to be normal human civilians and just not clocking each other?
Based on both the original series and the info dropped in my AU, there’s a few ways this could possibly happen:
A common enemy bigger than each other (such as the Sanda situation). This would depend on the agent and would probably end up being a mix of a ‘lesser of two evils’ and ‘the devil you know’ situation. No guarantee this would last.
The covenant agent(s) are younger or less experienced with field work, or have less indoctrination and/or ties to the covenant. This might make them more open to new experiences or willing to question previous teachings (such as with Shiro, or Dominic from the original series).
They were already not great covenant agents to begin with or were taking field work agents as a way to try and learn new things or get out (ex. with Thomas from the actual series)
As you suggested, both undercover and not clocking each other...but this would be hard to pull off. Covenant agents are trained to be able to recognize most forms of common cryptids. It definitely would be hard to do with Shiro’s friend circle since most of them have very recognizable features, and Shiro is a known face to them. Lance and Coran are the only two that might be able to pull off not getting caught immediately, and Lance would have to be very careful to pass for human the whole time or risk being very stabbed.
At the end of the day it really comes down to individual characters too. Some are much more hardline about their stance than others.
Sorry if you've answered this before. But what are the stances of the UA teachers on the "villains raise villains" prejudice? Do they agree/disagree in principle or from personal experience? And on a related topic, how badly will each of them (especially Aizawa) explode at hearing what happened with Nighteye agency?
If you asked them directly, most of them would tell you that ‘villains raise villains’ is bullshit; their behaviour, however, would say differently. It’s a very deeply ingrained idea in their society and it’s hard to shake from your subconscious.
And there are going to be fireworks from UA over the Nighteye incident.
