#travis ryder

[erisluna35]

Related to this post, this is the logic I'm using as to how Shizubug who's only trained in mirakungfu for less than a year is able to go toe to toe against Pavonis, a seasoned veteran who had far more time to learn and practice.

Shizuke's mirakungfu is derived from a more flexible style adapted for Marinette's team: less rigid and allows for whatever sports or martial art the person already know to be adapted into it.

They deconstructed mirakungfu between the spiritual (reading Qi flow) and the physical (martial art). With this, most of her team only really focused on the spiritual part but those who are already trained at some kind of fighting style or even sports, they get to improvise with what they already know. Kagami and Adrien are the obvious ones to pick it up the fastest but there's also Kim, Sabrina and Marc close behind... And Chloe.

Back to Shizuke, he already practices Judo for self defense. Has experience in brawling thanks to Fiona. Definitely used to restraining troublemakers who get violent at school. He is sitting on a lot of exp and even better than the above examples, some of it isn't from a controlled environment with a referry or a coach. Picking up mirakungfu is just a matter of understanding the spiritual side to it and responding physically with what he already knows.

Pavonis on the other hand is very traditionally trained. Had Adrien fought him directly in N2CaTs, he would've said he fights EXACTLY like Suhan, even moreso than Shizuke. That's because he does. For over a hundred years, the practice of mirakungfu has been preserved in his family for generations. Pavonis actually came from a long line of rogue guardian monks - those who refused to acknowledge Marinette and her newly formed group, hates that most of the old order at Tibet decided to tolerate her and even share some of their teachings with her team, and went off to strike out on their own. Any other miraculous wielder would've been stumped against him... But not those trained with mirakungfu from Marinette's order.

Another special feature of her more flexible style is because her team already freely transform with their miraculous, they get far more practice actually fighting miraculous users. They got to refine it. There's also the advantage of learning how to use their transformation to further enhance their mirakungfu, not just with the physical buffs the suit gives. They're more tailored to fighting other miraculous wielders than the average guardian.

And that is why Shizuke has something of a type advantage against Pavonis. What he's taught is far updated. He's also gotten more practice in with Blair and the rest of his team being his sparring partners. He's also young, active and physically fit. He's only gonna grow stronger the more he gets used to fighting Pavonis.

Pavonis is out of practice and practically relies on his suit's physical buffs cause outside of that, he's out of shape. He may be at a prime age of being somewhere between his late 20s to early 30s with a blue collar job, but that doesn't make up for not having any combat practice for almost a decade. He just remembers his training well, his abusive father drilled it into his muscle memory. He may be ahead of Shizuke but the gap will get closer by the day.

[erisluna35ocblog]

I've been on a pokemon AU mood as of late so I might as well expand the cast and assign Gym Leaders. Each gym has it's own gimmick that gets more hindering the higher up the trainer goes.

1st Gym: Ross (bug) - the main trio's teacher. They challenge his gym on their way out of the university city as the final test to formally begin their journey. His gym is in the school and the challengers fight their fellow students tournament style, that way he can get through multiple students at a time. A lot of pokemon in this gym has moves that lowers atk, sp.atk and accuracy.

Occupation: Teacher

Signature Mon: Leavanny

TM: Struggle Bug

2nd Gym: Noa (normal) - a classmate who moved back to his hometown. Instead of challenging gyms, he straight up promoted in his hometown after he graduated. He will never live the lazy bum life he wanted. His gym is just his mansion and he literally lives there. The goal is to get to his bedroom to wake him up as the challenger fights his servants. Lots of stalling tactics with protect and substitute and sleep and rest in his servants' team movesets.

Occupation: Scion, Student

Signature Mon: Komala

TM: Rest (for irony points as his main Komala can't actually use it and it remains out of reach from him)

3rd Gym: Natalia (water) - the current contest hall master who doubles as the gym leader. Aims to promote her town's tourism with events and commerce through her performances. Her gym is aquarium show based and each round is a stage. Challengers move from stage to stage until they get to the biggest one with Natalia on it. It "rains" all over the gym and it can't be changed. Between Scalds giving burns and all kinds of poison moves, the gym does a lot of chip damage.

Occupation: Contest Hall Champion and Judge, Student

Signature Mon: Toxapex

TM: Scald

4th Gym: Haruji (grass) - Shizuke's grandmother and the current shrine guardian for a legendary pokemon. Her gym is a grove and each round is laiden with traps that trigger as soon as the fight begins and automatically applies a random status on the first pokemon in line. Uses similar tactics as Shizuke with effect powders and leech seeds.

Occupation: Shrine Guardian, Berry Shopkeeper

Signature Mon: Shiinotic

TM: Giga Drain

5th Gym: Gavril (ice) - Fiona's older brother. He took over the gym after their mom retired to seal away a legendary pokemon. His gym is at a slope where the challengers slide across the slush and fight trainers on the way down to where Gavril is. Snow is a constant and can't be changed. Set ups are also prevented with rapid spin and ice spinner. Pokemon on both sides have a higher chance of getting frozen than usual.

Occupation: Pokemon Racer

Signature Mon: Abomasnow

TM: Ice Spinner

6th Gym: Travis (dark) - Zephyr's dad who runs a casino, which is also where his gym is. There's some kind of gimmick that involves slots messing with atk and def stats every time either side loses a pokemon.

Occupation: Professional Gambler

Signature Mon: Liepard

TM: Foul Play

7th Gym: Chihiro (electric) - a flashy girl who's gym is in a tall glass fashion house and works closely with Natalia, trading materials in exchange for her creations. Her gym's got a lot of elevators and conveyor belts. It's similar to Travis' gym when it comes to messing with stats, but hers messes with speed and turns. Every few turns her pokemon gain priority because of the tower's mechanisms. Electric Terrain is also on.

Occupation: Pokemon Accessory and Fashion Designer

Signature Mon: Pawmot

TM: Volt Switch

8th Gym: Leo (fighting) - Keagan's cousin who went on a pokemon journey a year before. Lost to the champion and ended up as a gym leader. His gym is a flashy stadium. There's a level cap that keeps all pokemon entering the gym stay in that level and Leo's team being ten levels over it.

Occupation: Model, Athlete, Fencer

Signature Mon: Blaziken

TM: Close Combat

Next time I'll think of the elite four.

[a-bold-departure]

via ryderartistry

[sikasupernova]

A beautiful boy!! Featuring background Vetra Travis Ryder | He/him | Engineer

[erisluna35]

DEMON SLAYER AU

While I can't imagine Blair, Fiona and Natalia pulling off a dynamic like the Huntrix's in the KPDH AU (it's why they're sorted into mix gendered groups instead), I could definitely see them pulling off the kamoboko trio's dynamic in a Demonslayer or KNY AU.

Blair is definitely Tanjiro, carrying around a demonized Blake who is Nezuko. Her brother broke his leg that day so she had to be the one to go down to town to sell coal. She comes back seeing her parents are dead and Blake turned into a demon... They're just cursed to be orphans in every au. Vincent, a pillar, is the one who found the twins and much like with Giyuu, he was eventually convinced to spare Blake, seeing how protective he is of his sister despite becoming a demon. Blair pretty much follows along Tanjiro's story but I think she'd be pretty interested in picking up all kinds of tricks from other pillars or comrades. Definitely a fan of poison and is curious about guns. Gurl gets into an internal conflict about wanting to go back to a normal life vs escapism as a demon slayer. Like, she still desperately wants to get her bro back to normal but she isn't sure if she wants to go back to a normal life after training as a demon slayer. She likes being a demon slayer. In this era there wasn't a lot of career options for a woman besides being a good wife, which was ugh for her. Before all this went down she was pretty lost on what to do.

Natalia is like Zenitsu but with Shinobu's poison based breathing style. Her family was killed by demons too, leaving just her and her sisters. Velvet, her older sister, died as a pillar. She's just her tsugoku and not a very strong one. She does not have the physical strength to behead a demon. So she researched poison to make up for it. After her sister died she studied under the Demon Slayer Corps' doctor alongside her younger sister who she banned from demon slaying. The two argue about Natalia taking up the sword despite not being very strong and is actually pretty scared... But Natalia can't let go of her desire for vengeance and has given up so much for it like a chance at a normal life and getting married... That doesn't stop her from developing a crush on Blake though. It's only with him that she acts a bit more like a normal girl around her age.

Fiona is Inosuke in role only. She's just the third guy who butts heads with a cowardly demon simp. She's more of a Genya tbh. Her family were also attacked by demons except hers did survive. Her father moved to the blacksmith village and is always innovating weapons for the demon slayers. Her mom is a retired pillar, lost an arm and had to quit and currently lives with her husband in that blacksmith village. Her brother is the current ice breathing pillar. She has a deep admiration for all demon slayers for saving her family in time. And a deep hatred for demons, it's why she was gonna attack Blake on sight but Natalia kept getting in the way. She's still childhood friends with Keagan and Shizuke though they're all on separate fields... Keagan is gonna be the next head of the corps and is cursed to die young. Fiona's goal is to get strong enough and to end Muzan to break the curse on Keagan and his family as her way of showing gratitude for saving hers. Unlike most demon slayers, Fiona goes through a wide variety of weapons designed by her father. A gun is her constant back up.

Blake is Nezuko, though his demon form is more kitsune inspired than oni inspired. His demon arts is illusion based. He does regain his speech faster than Nezuko though he more or less relies on illusions to speak rather than physically speaking himself. At night, he can disguise himself as a human and can pass himself off as one so naturally, only demon slayers could really tell he's a demon. His brain is constantly foggy and has trouble remembering things instead of mentally regressing into a child. He only remembers that Blair was someone important to him so he follows her around and protects her. Natalia... She was just this weirdo hanging around Blair at first. She was scared of him and there's this sense of anger at seeing him but Blair said they should try to get along so he tried his best. He gave her presents, said nice things to her, taking her to festivals, showing up in his human form cause she seems more comfortable with that illusion, etc. I just wanted the oc equivalent for Zennezu to be a little more palatable, it was kinda weird when Nezuko spends most of the series mentally a child.

Other characters:

Vincent is pretty much Giyuu, the pillar that spared the twins and took them to his master/mother. He's considered the oddball of the pillars... Personality wise he's more like Rengoku. Cheerful but he hides how much he mourns every comrade he's ever lost. Especially his dad, who died to a demon attack. A bit of a loner, but the twins didn't think he'd be one since he's so perky around them.

Erin is basically Giyuu's master, the retired pillar that took a chance and spared the demonized sibling. She's cold and stern at first, really went all out on training to discourage Blair. She only really agreed to take them both in to keep a close eye on Blake. But in two or three years of being under her roof, not once did Blake gave in and attacked anyone. It took a long while to get her on their side but now she's their most consistent supporter alongside her son Vincent and Blair hates to admit it but she sees Erin as a parental figure.

Shizuke is pretty much Aoi but with Kanao's role as a potential love interest. He used to be a demon slayer but has quit and studied as a doctor. He was traumatized when the last group he was in all died except for him. He blames himself for not being able to save anyone. Not helped that some people resents that he of all people survived when there were more talented people in that group that deserved to live more. They did eventually apologize after Fiona confronted them and Keagan told them off, but Shizuke took it to heart. He was lost on his purpose for a while but he didn't want to stay idle and chose to keep helping in the hospital. That's where he first met Blair. Just like him, she was lost on her purpose as well and they kinda bonded over that. Blair did say though, his general direction seems to have always been wanting to help others. In the finale, he does end up doing what Kanao did but like, he was only there as a field medic. It's up in the air if he ever got a fight scene. He's pretty good at making wire based traps to slow down demons.

Keagan is the next head of the demon slayer corps and is similarly cursed like the one in canon. He's been delaying getting into an arranged marriage though he did think of asking Fiona. Too bad the girl was too determined to be a demon slayer that he decided against it, unaware she's doing it all to save him. His father has been in critical condition for a while so Keagan's pretty much taken over his duties. He's a great tactician and coordinated the demon slayers in the finale.

Damien is one of the pillars and has an intense grudge against demons. He lost his little brother to them. Definitely pushed for executing Blake on the spot. He and Natalia are still close friends. They came from the same village and lost their family to the same demon, who turned out to be an upper moon. They teamed up against that same demon in the finale.

Travis is basically the sound pillar. He used to be a ninja. He doesn't have a harem, just one wife and a child. Liera is the wife that went missing in the red lights district and it's why he asked around for female demon slayers to come with him and infiltrate to find her. Zephyr, his only son and tsugoku, snuck along much to his annoyance.

Zephyr pretty much inherited the title of sound pillar once his dad lost a hand and was forced to retire. Either that or Travis dies. Often tag teams with Damien.

[erisluna35]

On this episode of what fanon thing from the golden era of S1-S2 inspired my mlb ocs lore:

Dead hero parents and ex-hero assholes.

Making the dead parent a hero intensifies the dead good parent trope in my opinion. Now they get to die because they were too good, like its inevitable. It also adds an edge if their child is also a hero, like one day you can end up like them but you still wore the mask anyway. That's how Emilie felt like to me back then. Of course, Adrien eventually learns and it parallels well with his tendency to sacrifice himself so Ladybug could save the day. Makes him reflect on that.

Blair gets put through a similar dilemma. She knows what the Black Cat role entails. She's also got a parent who died a hero. Yet she still wants to be one, their deaths did not douse her dream. Blake is there to directly contrast with her, admiring heroes but not wanting him or his sister to be one ever since their parents died. The twins eventually clash about it, sharing the same trauma but reacting differently. I've put a bit of that in N2CatS, danger follows those who wield the Miraculous. The twins have different follow ups. Blair charges forward cause real heroes are strong enough to do so. Blake steps back, fixated on his loss.

Then there's the ex-hero asshole. Believe it or not, there were theories about Gabriel being a former hero alongside his wife. It varies whether he wielded the butterfly or the peacock or if he becomes Hawkmoth or not... but in the takes where he wasn't Hawkmoth, it makes some of his not so stellar parental moments have a better justification than being controlling or abusive. He used to be a hero, his wife was a hero. She died. They made enemies. Him isolating Adrien is more out of overprotectiveness, still wrong but significantly more sympathetic. He's a walking reminder of the dangers of being a hero, a bad case scenario for what Ladybug could become if one day Miraculous Ladybug could not fix Chat Noir. He's grown bitter and is likely to have a sharp word or two for Master Fu for choosing children to wield the two most powerful Miraculous. Hence, asshole. Kind of.

Pavonis though, he's not winning the AITA polls. Yes, this guy, is very losely based on THAT fanon Gabe. Ex-hero, jaded because the heroic parent died. In his case, its his whole team that included Blair's mom. His bad reaction to the heroic parent dying is also multiplied, he became an outright antagonist and joined Hawkmoth. She convinced him the guardian had more power than she actually does and made him resent her. His grief is so bad he took a bit of canon Gabe and wanted to use the wish to bring his team back to life. His character's core theme is meant to be about what the hero deserves. Because danger follows those who wield the Miraculous.

[erisluna35]

What happened to the peacock in your rewrite?

It's more of a future gen than a full rewrite. The peacock miraculous in my oc story is currently with an ex-hero goes by the name Pavonis. So long backstory up ahead:

The thing is, he wasn't chosen by the current guardian, Hisui, but by the person who she chose to be her successor when Hisui fell into a comma. That would be Blair's mom. She had to step up as the new guardian and leader of her team and recruited Pavonis despite his sketchy background. She was desperate. The enemy at the time was too powerful, more than half the team she formed didn't come back alive. Pavonis survived but doesn't know Hisui and couldn't return the peacock. He also wasn't really very motivated to, he's sort of attached to Duusuu like she's his emotional support buddy and he knows the moment they meet the guardian's gonna take Duusuu back. That suicide mission he survived traumatized him and he was super attached to his team, like the family he never had.

He eventually tried to move on, got married and had a kid but the event stunted him in a way. He couldn't hold down a stable job for one thing. For another, he isn't motivated to continue being a hero, actively hiding from the guardian. He was as fine as he could be for a while. Maybe he'll just pass the miraculous on to his kid when his time comes to follow his comrades in the afterlife. That was his plan. Alas it's not meant to be.

Fast forward a few years later, the new Hawkmoth comes knocking at his door. At first he didn't wanna cooperate with the woman who not only akumatized his kid multiple times but also literally took the butterfly miraculous from his old team mate's dead body... but she's an empath. She can sense his intense grief over his team as well as his current problem with his terminally ill wife. She's already taken advantage of his kid's reaction to that news multiple times, of course she's not above using it against the father either.

She appealed to his grief. Then she fanned his anger at how helpless he is to prevent tragedies with his team and now his current family. Then she presents him with a way to circumvent that: a wish.

The price is a measly life for a life. They died saving so many lives... Don't you think they're worth a couple of those they saved?

Isn't it cruel of the guardian to not use the wish to bring back your team? Not even her successor. They all died with not a song to their names.

Why don't you rectify that?

And with that, Pavonis shook her hand and teamed up with her.

I mentioned before he had a shady past. It turns out he descended from a line of rogue guardians - the historical lore for that might as well be another post but anyway, Pavonis does have a record for attempting to steal a Miraculous, ordered by his abusive guardian trained father. Blair's mom saved him from that life and it's why he's so attached to her and her team. Now, he thanks his old man for teaching him mirakungfu among other things. He's perfectly armed to take the Miraculous from a bunch of kids.

The only catch though is at least two members of this generation's hero team are the children of his savior. Holding back against Blair left an opening for a certain temporary turtle to Jade Seal his weapon and his senti, as a result he sealed away his powers.

So the current status of the peacock miraculous is it's fine, it's not cracked so the current wielder isn't sick. It's just that the current wielder has sided with the bad butterfly lady and its powers can't activate due to Jade Seal blocking it. He can't make another Senti as long as the last one he made is magically locked in, the Jade Seal protecting it from getting poofed away. He can't break it's object. He can't open his fan. It's all locked because of Jade Seal... After all, locking something away is just another form of protection.

Here's a picture of him. Back when he was younger vs how he looks now. I may have to update him sooner or later though.

[erisluna35]