The third chapter of 'Treading Open Water' is up on AO3 now. The whole thing is sitting at a healthy 22.5k words already. My baby is growing so fast :^;
Genuinely though, if you like emotional, angsty takes on these characters, I'd appreciate you giving it a try! I've got a very hefty timeline I've got set out with tons of stuff already written up for later. I'm very excited for it all and hella proud of this ma-hoosive timeline and extended universe I've carved out of Jhonen's creation. It's mine now Jhonen, I've stolen it.
!! ALSO !!
I've posted the first chapter of a side AU, a for funsies thing I started to write a while back that I got way more into than I'd expected. Unrelated to the Banishment Planet events, it's an SCP AU where Dib is a field agent with Zim as his unofficial tag-along help. The two-parter I'm working on now is SCP-7819, the No Vacancy Motel.
If you like fun, sometimes life threatening explorations of SCPs and you wanna see these two chucklefucks be in danger, check that out at this link right here!
But they found one use for it- a dumping ground. A place to send their very own that they didn't kill but simultaneously never wanted to see again. To be sent to Earth was to be abandoned, discarded. An Irken exiled to Earth would never be heard from again.
They were far from dead, though.
⭒ Welcome to Banishment Planet! ⭒
This is my big headcanon heavy Invader Zim AU. It is a two parter technically, which I'll explain below! For easy access, here are the main tags of this blog:
#alaart : For all bug art, including things not related to any story.
#artist support : For reblogged IZ art.
#banplanau : For all posts regarding the main AU, not necessarily specific to either half of the timeline.
#tow : For the Zim and Dib focus precursor story, 'Treading Open Water'.
#banishmentplanet : For the second part of the timeline and the story involving my original characters, Navic and Itsuki.
#boarderiz : My secondary major AU, focusing on deep space adventures between a Zim and Dib who meet for the first time as adults in space.
#ao3 : To easily find AO3 links and excerpts I post here.
What is Banishment Planet?
Banishment Planet is both the name of the AU and, depending on the context, a specific part of the overall timeline. It is preceded by 'Treading Open Water', the story arc focusing on Zim and Dib's own character growth. 'Banishment Planet' takes place a few years later, featuring both them and original characters. Namely, an exile by the name of Navic and a home-planet Irken named Itsuki.
Headcanons? What are those?
By the nature of the IZ universe (cough cough, Jhonen has given us so little), headcanons are a huge thing for us. It's my favourite part of this fandom, seeing how differently these same characters and setting can be expanded upon and interpreted. And because of that there will always be headcanons you don't like as much as others. If my angsty mushy interpretation of these idiots isn't your flavour, just trot off and leave me to it :]
That being said, this fandom, for twenty years, has been rife with some of the stupidest discourse surrounding the vagueness of the canon. Here are my hard rules:
1: Don't even start- Zim and Dib are the same age. Show material calls them both children multiple times and any comment on age by creators is inconsistent. So over two actual decades the lot of us have just decided on what we like better. I think it's funnier if they're the same age. Here’s a great post about it too.
2: Here, they are queer. Their relationship is weird and complicated so very much fun to explore in this silly little fictional space.
What about the cool stuff?
In terms of the world, I wanna keep that up to natural reveal! To lay it all out in a text post most people won't read is boring and doesn't exercise media analysis and creative thinking skills. Read the stuff, look at the art, find things out for yourself!
