#rewrite canon

[rwby-diaries]

Old meme, old comic, but we never posted this when I doodled it almost 2 years ago by accident oops!

by @bosiphas

[azuzulira]

Yet another BNHA fic idea

Suppose Deku never got One for All. He still applied to UA, but obviously not heroics. Instead, he applies to the course he'd be best at. So what course does our hero-loving, quirk-analyzing sunshine child go into? The Hero Management course of course. Deku would be the perfect fit for that class, and with his skill level, his teacher thinks he should work closely with the Hero courses.... Which ends up putting him right in most of the same situations, except without One for All, and focusing more on directing resources or helping plan on the fly. USJ? Helps Tsu and Mineta by getting Mineta to throw the balls where he suggests, and keeps the criminals at bay with an exaggerated imaginary quirk. Or he gets sent to a different zone and helps there. Sports Festival? Pretty similar to the first one, ends up just squeaking by due to his quirk in the second round, but loses to Shinso in the third. Todoroki vs Shinso is a wipe out, since Todoroki isn't very talkative and pretty much blasts him with his ice right away. It isn't until vs. Bakugou that Deku gives Todoroki the "it's your quirk not his!" speech from the sideline, (where Endeavor can hear) which brings a real spectacle in the basket between Bakugou and Todoroki. Not sure who would win. Deku then works in the management department of a normal hero agency (maybe the same one Iida goes for) and somehow ends up at the Stain battle and manages to keep him talking long enough for Endeavor to arrive. (If you want, since the kids didn't fight as well against him, he does manage to hurt Endeavor to a degree where an early retirement is needed.) After that, he goes along to the summer camp to help tutor students who feel behind and help devise ways to improve the various quirk. He manages to distract Muscular, and rescues the kid, and then it goes similar to canon except Midoriya is calling shots. Either Bakugou avoids kidnapping, or Deku ends up getting One for All during a hospital visit from All Might. Either way, next up is Provisional license exam, and Midoriya somehow gets dragged along, and ends up accidentally getting his provisional hero license, despite being quirkless/heavily injured. They drag him into the Hero Course, (at the expense of expelling Mineta because honestly least favorite student) and he takes internships. If he was give OFA, with Gran Torino, and runs into Eri while patrolling with him. If no OFA, then with Sir Nighteye, to help his strategic thinking. Same as canon, except quirkless and a lot more behind the scenes work for Deku.

Anyway yeah. Sorry for the word dump.

[halekingsourwolf]

Head canoning/au: what if stiles was bit instead of Scott? Or in addition? DOB playing accidental werewolf stiles. Does it cure his ADHD? Does he embrace it? If Scott still dates Allison, does that make the drama more interesting and less cliched, less Romeo and Juliet, more how can you choose her over me? Or what if Peter bites stiles later in first season, when he mentions it canonically to stiles. How does stiles take to being a were? How do you think Sterek would be affected?

Continued: I mean, don't get me wrong, I looooove human stiles and wouldn't change him, love that he's sarcastic but fragile, love that he's a spark, or whatever, but not bullet proof... But I think he would handle the wolf stuff so differently than Scott did...

Oh Stiles would have 1000% handled turning very differently than Scott did, and season one would have been a completely different show. I’m going to start off saying that I agree, I love human!Stiles (and also spark!Stiles) too much to ever really be into the idea of wolf!Stiles or him turning, but it would have been interesting to see how that would have played out.

I’m going to run with the idea of Stiles being turned instead of Scott in this ask, because him being bitten as well would be a whole different ramble. 

First off, I think Stiles would have embraced the hell out of having superpowers. Scott enjoyed the benefits of being a wolf to get on the lacrosse team and win over Allison, but otherwise he was pretty desperate to be normal and ignore any elements of the supernatural going on in his life. Scott wanted a normal (well, popular sports star, but normal) life, but Stiles –– the geeky, World of Warcraft playing, superhero and sci fi movie loving geek that he is –– would have embraced the new wolf identity whole-heartedly. Remember, he was the one who actually figured out Scott was a werewolf (even jokingly) and helped him through learning control and connecting with his anchor. So I see werewolf!Stiles taking to be a wolf much faster than Scott did, if only because he would want to embrace it, want to learn as much as he could about it, want to be the best goddamn superhero werewolf he could be, because having superpowers is freaking awesome! 

So I think that, while for Scott the journey was one of “ugh, why is this happening to me” with a touch of “cool I can get a girlfriend now”, toward accepting that this was a permanent part of his life, for Stiles the journey would have gone in somewhat the opposite direction: from wholeheartedly embracing this awesome gift to slowly realizing –– as bodies piled up and hunters appeared in the picture –– that it might not be all sunshine and superpowers after all. (But I honestly think he’d handle that better too. Stiles is used to adapting to hard times, is a realist bordering on a cynic, and when he realized it was time to get serious I think he would have been able to ground himself and grow up fast –– though not without some serious griping along the way.)

I think the arc of the season probably would have changed a lot too, with Stiles as the core character. Along with his own research, he probably would have gone to Derek for answers and struck up a relationship much earlier on, wanting to learn as much as possible about the world he was now a part of. The main reasons he kept more of a distance from Derek in canon were because he was A) following Scott’s lead, since Scott was the one this was most affecting, B) he was scared of Derek (and certain feelings Derek was bringing out in him) and C) he was jealous that Scott and Derek were in this werewolf club together and he wasn’t, so he kind of wanted to nudge Derek aside to hold onto Scott better. All of which would have been different if Stiles were the one at the center of all the werewolf issues, with his own werewolf strength to match Derek’s.

(And in fact, he did go to Derek for answers a bit even in canon, like the scene in the police car when Derek was arrested –– and in an especially bad mood, I mean don’t get a guy arrested for the murder of his sister and then decide it’s time to chat. Just... bad timing there, Stiles –– and I think that would have been much more the norm in a world where Stiles was the werewolf.)

Since Derek would see Stiles actually invested in what was happening, actually wanting to understand (even in his snarky and skeptical way), I think Derek would have felt a lot more settled and secure than he did throughout canon season one. Derek’s main goals that season were to protect the stupid teenagers, get the stupid teenagers to take this seriously, and to feel a little less alone after losing Laura, and Stiles actually coming to him, wanting to learn, would change so much of that and leave him a lot more settled.

Ok, what else... I do think being a wolf would have probably cured Stiles’ ADHD, since the bite cured Erica’s epilepsy. Or at least... held it at bay. There’s a possibility that being exposed to wolfsbane, or other things that stalled out his wolf healing, would cause a resurgence of symptoms the way it did with Erica. Which would make wolfsbane exposure even more dangerous for Stiles, because it could potentially make him weaker and make it harder for him to focus on how to escape the situation.

As for Scott... I can see this going one of either two ways. Scott was very woe is me and Scott-centric throughout season one, and I’ll say somewhat understandably. He was the one who got the bite, who had his life flipped upside-down, and so it makes sense that he would be thinking about his own drama over other people’s. I’m also going to suggest that Scott’s overwhelming obsession with Allison was partly due to his being a new wolf (stronger senses, stronger instincts) and her being his anchor (being hyper-focused on her settled him). So, while I think a lot of Scott’s behavior was just down to his general personality, it’s also possible that a human Scott would have just reacted a bit more... normally, to getting a girlfriend. It’s also possible that, considering Stiles would be the one who was in trouble, the one whose problems needed to be focused on, Scott would have stepped up and been more focused on supporting Stiles in general. It’s easy when you’ve got a broken thumb to go “oh I have a broken thumb, feel bad for me, I can’t focus on your problems right now friend, my thumb’s hurting.” But if your thumb’s perfectly fine and your friend’s is the one that’s broken, you might be there and focused and more inclined to put them first and help them out.

(And yes, I just compared being bitten by a werewolf to having a broken thumb. I have no idea why. I’m sleep deprived with too much coffee in my system; let’s move on.)

So yes, it’s totally possible that human!Scott would put more focus on a werewolf!Stiles than on Allison, even causing him to leave her once he finds out her family are werewolf hunters. (Because again, it’s easy to keep dating someone dangerous when they’re threatening you and the poor loner werewolf you just honestly don’t care about :/ but if they’re threatening your best friend, that might change your attitude a bit.)

Of course, it could go in the complete opposite direction as well. Since we know Scott just wanted a normal life, the fact that Stiles was suddenly so completely not normal might set a wedge between them, even unconsciously. If that happened early on, it would probably push Stiles closer to Derek, push Scott closer to Allison, and potentially even lead Scott to side with the hunters if Kate or Chris managed to convince him that the werewolves were the dangerous monsters who stole his best friend from him. (And honestly this would be such an interesting dynamic to play out –– Scott trying to do the right thing, convinced by his girlfriend’s family that werewolves were the wrong thing. Maybe even convinced that killing the Alpha or Derek would turn Stiles back to being human, and that he’d be saving him by doing so. Leading Stiles and Derek into a trap by pretending to want to make amends, and then realizing his mistake when Kate ends up trying to kill Stiles too. And... damn, I want to write this now.)

Anyway, there’s so much more to explore here but I’ve definitely rambled on long enough. Awesome question, anon, thank you!

^ werewolf Stiles with Derek as his anchor ;P

[rwby-diaries]

Early Mornings

Did a little sketch of the girls when they were younger with their favourite uncles!

by @bosiphas

[halekingsourwolf]

1/4 On the subject of Alpha inheritance, have you read the Sum of its Parts series by KouriArashi? It might be too… multi-shippy for you? I know you’re a pretty hardcore monoshipper. (Sterek are a committed, super-solid romantic relationship, but Derek is ace (and fairly sex-repulsed I think) and Stiles sometimes has casual sex with Erica, later in the series. Everyone talks about it and is chill with each other. )

Anyway, I bring it up because it was started around/before 3rd season, and has some really cool ideas about alpha-ness. Like, packs are a little more psychic-bond-y and if a human in a werewolf pack kills an alpha, they can become alpha, while still being human. 

Packs of born wolves who have large territories tend to have more/multiple alphas in them, and alphas can co-lead packs. Laura was expected to just “become” an alpha at some point, true alpha style without killing anyone, and then there would have been multiple Hale Alphas until/unless Talia died. And likely-alpha children aren’t always the oldest, but rather display dominance and leadership traits. Doesn’t guarantee they /will/ be an alpha, but suggests that either they will just “become” one one day if the pack is big enough, or will inherit it if a parent/pack/lead alpha dies.The Alpha pack is an actual /useful/ group whose job is to vet new alphas and decide if they will do a good job or if they need to be executed and their pack disbanded/absorbed into other packs. Lone alphas/last remaining alpha/wolf of packs are sometimes invited into the alpha pack. Anyway, I think it’s a unique system. And am enjoying the fic/podfic. The whole verse is, like, 1.2 million words.

I remember trying to read this a long time ago and, while it wasn’t something I could enjoy personally or get through for the reasons mentioned, I remember thinking that I wished it was something I could get enjoy because it seemed to have interesting ideas and be well written.

I have mixed feelings on multi-Alpha packs, just in general. I think that leaders who respect each other can co-lead effectively in a lot of situations, but what happens in life or death situations, if Alphas are divided on the course of action? (Because, let’s face it, wolf packs are very much prone to getting in life or death situations, where a split leadership could lead to death and destruction.) It’s part of the reason why I can’t ever see Scott and Derek as pack, even in the later seasons. Because despite respecting each other, both are leaders in their own right and have proven one won’t bend to the other. They’ll support each other and back each others’ plays, but Scott is the pack leader and Derek will never be his beta so they can’t be pack; it just wouldn’t function. And when push comes to shove, there needs to be one person who can make an executive decision and people listen, you know?

…Unless the Alphas decided to be in charge of different aspects of leadership, maybe. There’s the “defense and battle strategy” Alpha and the “taking care of the pack” Alpha, or something else where the responsibilities are neatly and clearly divided. Or if they’re both Alphas but the power isn’t exactly equal… like in a pack of Talia and Laura, Laura would still be an Alpha and higher than everyone else but still subordinate to Talia?

I also do think the show could have done a lot more interesting things with the concept of an Alpha pack. Since I started the show late I never really had a chance to speculate or come up with my own ideas for it before I saw them on-screen, but the idea of a wolf-council keeping order honestly makes a lot of sense. Werewolves as a whole are a society that exists below the radar and has for thousands of years. Any small exposure (*cough* like a reckless new beta insisting on playing high school sports before he has control), especially in this day and age, could be devastating to the entire supernatural community, worldwide. And when you think about it that way, there really should be some system of checks and balances, some higher authority making sure packs play by the rules and don’t expose everyone, and potentially covering up issues as they arise. Maybe this would come in the form of a multi-species council, or maybe each race would be expected to police their own, and the Alpha pack being either the ultimate council for werewolves or some of the enforcers of a higher council is… legitimately a really cool idea.

Imagine them coming to BH because of all of the near-misses over the first two seasons: a feral Alpha leaving body parts all over town, a kanima paralyzing and killing victims, a new wolf and his unconventional pack of humans and hunters more or less spitting in the face of tradition and conventional pack structure? And if, instead of testing Scott and Derek for “worthiness” to be included in their pack, they were testing them to see how they handled threats, up close? To see whether they would protect the supernatural secrets, or carelessly risk exposing them all? And all season the characters think they’re fighting for their lives, tooth and claw and they come into the final confrontation shaking and basically sure they’re going to be killed right here by these vicious Alphas and then… Deucalion just sort of smiles and says that they’ve passed the tests, they’ve proved themselves worthy of defending Beacon Hills, but they’d better be careful because the Council is still watching. And then the Alphas shift back into the shadows and the main characters are all just sort of like “wait what, what just happened.”

…I’m sorry I just hijacked this ask in a totally different direction but I legitimately want this story now.

[anima-carnicula]

I was only completely alone when you slept, and perhaps the proper thing to do was to think of myself, yet each night I found my attention pulled towards your dreams. Compared to your centuries of life, and your once promised aeons more, my four months of life seemed shaky and still hollow, the marrow yet to grow into the bones and make them stronger.

I loved to watch you dream, little stranger. Many of the thoughts you kept hidden bubbled up through the walls in your head every night, and they terrified me, nauseated me: I watched the lifeless ebb of body you had lifted me from take worlds away, cleave souls from their skins, golden and droning as I supposed I had been before I, well, became. My lifeless chimera glistened and grew like sunlight, but it was so... sharply... caustic. I was born from a body built for novelty and blood sport. A tool of the trade. I found comfort running from your nightmares and then reeling into them again, somehow insatiable, I felt no connection to this churn of convienient flesh, yet remembering my birth, I, I, I knew I had come from such cruelty. My earliest memories were of your screams of pain.

But I did not watch you dream for those moments, those infallible blocks of anguish, whole kingdoms of it dragged out behind you. I watched them for... for you the living thing. In my first exposure to what you were, I pitied you, and I wondered how a creature untouched by mortality could feel any genuine satisfaction with its life, devoid of, I thought once, the will to live; which I assumed naievely was powered by the fear of death.

The rarest ones were those of your childhood. The smell of the depleting yolk cradled against your stomach, distant sounds, silhouettes. The soft little cartilage tooth on the tip of your nose that you used to free yourself, that dried out and fell off cleanly several days later. Your first steps, awkward little limbs splaying out left and right, wide swinging strides that suited your tiny body. Your tiny squeaks and trills for attention, the faces of your mother, father, and sister. Dogwood, magnolia, water, tangerines, and honey. The irritated growls you would make because your pelvis was slow at reshaping and your sister tripped you for it. Your tiny face staring into a mirror and running your hand over the peach fuzz forming on your scalp in awe— inheriting your mother’s hair it seemed, soon it would grow in soft, sable and thick. Splashing fountains, nectar and spices, sparkling limestone and marble and bronze; crystals, rich colors, petrichor, sea air... oblivion, and dust, dry cracking blood, and silence. Your little soul would wake up screaming, and I cowered behind your self, wringing hands I did not have— for my own flesh did that, before me I knew, yet god, I only existed because of the crimes my birth had sought to nullify. And my birth had been an accident; a byproduct. You do not seem to know I exist.

Yet somehow, these are less what I watch for. I love to see you as a child, for you remind me of myself, strange and innocent yet thinking and speaking— but I am reminded we are nothing alike. The world whites out and steals the life from beneath you. That is what my body was made for. That is why I exist. That is why the weaver of my first mindless form brought me to those women. Humans love, but they are afraid. Every day I am with you, I learn more and more that humans want to love; and yet they are still so afraid. They feel small, daunted by death yet daunted by life as well, and their yearning for love and understanding becomes entangled with their terror, their grasping through the dark, their need to identify and categorize all things in order to feel safe. Humans do not like unknowns, but then, neither do you. You cannot afford to.

I watch you dream of him. Of his smile, the warmth beneath his irises, the scent of his body and its warmth, the lull of his breath, the comfort of his lovemaking and the fullness of your exhausted heart; and with each day you had him, you began to wonder, look up, you began to hope, and I pull away from it: wanting to cry for you. Shield you from what will come. You are so angry, little stranger, and it may well be all my fault. I was a gift to those women and they used me, my body of miracles, to try and blot your home from the earth. I rose unthinking in their hands, a weapon I had become, baptized in the blood of your country. I have to rip myself away— I did not know, and I want to tell you I would never, but I can’t. There is no “I” to you now, and there was no “I” to stop my own body then.

I want to stay there beneath the currents of my being, curled up and shaking and wanting to reach out and grab you: tell you I exist, you made me exist, and mistake or not I want you to know I would never do that, not to anyone, if left to rule our actions alone I doubt I would be able to end so much as a single life. But I can’t. I can’t. Because you are afraid of me; more afraid of me than you have ever been of anything, except, perhaps, for my body’s first father. He... would not approve of what I had become. Of these thoughts in my head as it sat in the same space and time as yours, of my pity and my sorrow and revelations, my deep revulsion and my hurt and yet; my excitement, my joy, and my swooning wonder.

As much as he would dismiss my awe and belittle my fury, I have begun to learn that what would disturb him the most is my disobedience.