#zephyr ryder

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The Stars' Legacy 🌟

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Maude Shepard and her baby cousin, Zephyr Ryder drawn by the absolutely amazing @needlesslycryptic ! Thank you so so much, as always, for making my ocs look phenomenal.

[erisluna35]

... Natalia swears she's not the one who taught the kid this - even though she's learned to swear recently, she's careful! Just ask Damien! ... Who actually taught her how to curse. She'll fix it even if it isn't her fault! Just don't tell his parents he actually knows how to curse. Travis will have a heart attack if he receives a card like this from his sweet child. Where did he go wrong???

This is Zephyr Ryder! He debuts in Episode: Bully Hunter and is a major troublemaker. He means well most of the time. The kind of humor he brings is fucked up innocense.

[erisluna35ocblog]

Blog Guide:

I started this blog to organize my OC lores for those who are interested and want to get to know them better. It's a little complicated as I tend to put them in AUs, and they end up somewhat different depending on the story they're in yet I try to keep the cores of their characters the same. It will take a while before this blog starts posting original content as I put a lot of stuff on main that I will reblog here for now. I will expand and update this as time goes on.

Main OCs:

Keagan Gerald "Kaji" Aurelio Ashworth

Fiona "Fuyu" Kuznetsov

Shizuke Midorikawa

Blair Crawford

Blake Crawford

Natalia Hale

Damien Guerrero

Zephyr Ryder

AUs:

OG STORY - this is the tag I use to label my original concepts for these characters. Before their better known ML AU incarnations, I pictured them in this fairytale-esque fantasy au with Keagan as the main protagonist. Prince Keagan had a leisurely life as the spare to the throne who's only responsibility is tying down the most powerful knight of their generation to stay on their kingdom's side forever through marriage. Everything was set on a track and he had no intention of fighting it. He likes his hedonistic life as a prince and he gets along well enough with his fiance, it's not worth losing over a thing called "freedom". His destiny was agreeable to him... that is, until he learns of a horrible secret that puts his fiance in danger but she can't know about it lest she dies by her own sword because she is stubborn about protecting everyone like the goddamn knight she is. The prince is forced to take matters into his own hands and run away from the capital, recruiting an unlikely group of outcasts, creating enemies from the shadows and have his fiance and his other childhood friend try to drag him back home.

ML AU - this is the tag I use to lump together all stories set in the show called Miraculous Ladybug.

BTaL - Between Truths and Lies, posted on Ao3 and FF.net. Acronym can be pronounced to sound like "Beetle" lol. The basic premise is its lowkey a future gen fic focusing on the new heroes, Shizuke Midorikawa as Ladybug and Blair Crawford as Chat Noire. Follow their journey as they struggle through superheroing, magic, love, grief and one evil butterfly lady.

N2CatS - No Two Cats are the Same, posted on Ao3 and FF.net. Acronym can be pronounced like "N-2-Cats". It's the time travel story set midway S2 of BTaL that features canon characters and how they deal with being stuck with my ocs for a week. Focused mainly on character study. It jumps off from an alternate end to Ephemeral where Sass's last resort ends up yeeting Adrien and Blair into each other's eras. Can be read as a stand alone despite its references to BTaL, as most references come with an explanation or much context isn't needed to be understood. Though reading BTaL first does enhance some of the references and enhances foreshadowing.

Otome Game AU - You know those manhwas where the protagonist, usually female, wakes up one day into the romfan world of the otome game or novel she was reading before she died? And she's in the body of the villainess, or the heroine or some extra? This AU, that's my entire main cast. A group of tired and stressed college students were working on a game for their thesis. They either worked themselves to death or their kidneys gave out from too much red bull or maybe they were half asleep walking home when truck-kun came for them, who knows. Thing is, they all died. Individually woke up into the body of the character that was modelled after them - which explains how none of them realizes they're not the only one who reincarnated. Chaos ensues. Can they all come to the same page before its too late?

To go directly to the most important notes, go to:

CHARACTER ARTS NOTES AND OTHER INFO

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I love my girls so much 💜💙

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Obtained a PS5, finally able to replay Andromeda without my room turning into an overheated mess.

Meet Zephyr! Biotic trained, always wanted to follow in her older cousin, Commander Shepard's footsteps, chronically confused and winging it.

[erisluna35]

You know Erisluna35,

When it comes to your Miraculous Ladybug Next Gen AU Original Characters (Or at the very least Shizuke and Briar)

If they have Pokemon Teams, What Pokemon would they have as well as what type of trainer they'll be (League Competitor/Coordinator/Etc)?

(And would they use Regional Gimmicks like Terastalization and Mega Evolution as well?)

Thanks, Take Care and See Ya! ;)

Oooh! I actually made a list of the main five's teams and tactics in this post! And there's another post deals with trivias and references for their pokemon teams.

But what I haven't thought of is the type of trainers they'd be in a pokemon au. So that's what I'll be discussing here! Better get a seat, this is a long one.

Shizuke Midorikawa

Specialty: Grass/Fighting

Class: Gym challenger, set to take over the Grass type Gym (4th/5th) from his grandmother

He went on this journey to collect gym badges mainly because of Fiona's insistence: she wants him, her and Kaji to go on a grand adventure as she challenges gyms, aiming to be champion. Shizuke went along with challenging gyms as a way to study what it will take to be a better gym leader and has no intention to challenge the pokemon league... But he gets dragged into it as one of the few who would complete all eight badges by the time the league starts and they need at least eight trainers for the tournament. The gym his grandmother runs happens to double duty guarding what could be the shrine of one of the cover legendaries for this imagined game, could be a Grass/Fairy type, located in a foresty area in the region. Its counterpart will be protected by the gym Fiona's family runs in a cold steel city up North. I picture their gyms to be 4th/5th, the kinds where it's optional which one you'd challenge first cause their levels are the same and there are paths you could take to get to either city after the 3rd gym.

If I were to put my OCs in a pokemon game, I'd make Shizuke the playable male character. When he's not the chosen player character, he ends up as a rival and his default team is grass/fighting. As a rival, he's pretty friendly and fights the player periodically as training to help each other level up. Also ends up teaming up with player a lot, playing as a saboteur with his grass type's powder moves or his fighting type's priority moves, and they can count on him not to die easily with giga drain and drain punch on most of his pokemon. His arc is more about bringing him out of his shell and gaining confidence as a trainer but as the player/Fiona keeps beating him, he starts a cynical spiral and hits a low point after the 6th gym and he temporarily parts ways with the trio. Alone, he decides to backtrack to his hometown, thinking of quitting the gym challenge but that's when the evil organization attacks his hometown. The player character and Keagan are gonna hear what's up by the 7th gym, where Shizuke didn't turn up at all and instead it's Blair and/or Blake telling them what happened. So the four trainers go on to rescue Shizuke. He'd be depressed after the rescue and almost backed out of challenging the 8th gym, but the trio had to forgo the gym challenge in favor of beating the evil organization and after being acknowledge by the one of the box legendaries, he'd start to cheer up. At the end of his arc, he recovers from all this and upon rechallenging the grass gym, it'll be him the player will have to face instead of his grandmother. As the player character though, him inheriting the gym will be delayed and it'll still be his grandmother that's running the gym. You have the option to challenge Fiona at the battle tower to see the true end to their arc as they reconciled.

Fiona Kuznetsov

Specialty: Ice/Steel

Class: Gym challenger, aspiring Champion, daughter of the Steel type Gym Leader (4th/5th)

The one who starts the childhood friend trio's journey with her ambition to be champion. It all started cause her mom chose her older brother to be the next Steel type gym leader over her. Now, Fiona wants to aim higher than that. The road to becoming a champion will be long and hard, so she didn't want to go alone. It's more fun to travel with friends. Keagan was all for it. The gym her family runs double duty as guardians of the shrine of the other box legendary for this imagined game. I picture a Steel/Dragon type. It's meant to contrast with Shizuke's town where it's more rural and surrounded by nature while her city is more futuristic up a cold terrain.

If I were to put my OCs in a pokemon game, Fiona would be the playable female character. When she's not the chosen player character, she ends up as the rival and her default team is ice/steel. This is so they can be set up as foils with whoever the player is - both are kids/grandkids of gym leaders but one is set to be a gym leader while the other isn't. Both specialize in defensive tactics but they use different tactics and types. Both are taking the gym challenge but one actually aims to be champion while the other isn't. Both also moved to the starting town from a young age and stayed at the boarding school where they met Keagan. As a rival, while Shizuke is more like a Brendan that travels with you, Fiona is more like a cross between Hop and Marnie or just a nicer Cheren. She takes loses harder than Shizuke. She hits a breaking point around the 6th gym as she keeps losing to the player/Shizuke and just like rival!Shizuke, she pulls away from the group. Next thing the player will hear from her is after the 7th gym, the twins show up telling the player and Keagan that Fiona's hometown was attacked and she went to help all alone. They put the gym challenge on hold in favor of taking care of the evil organization. There's a part where the other box legendary acknowledges Fiona and together with the player, they power of friendshipped the hell out of the evil group. She ends her arc as the champion of the battle tower. But if she is the player character, then you'll get to see her ascend to the top and Shizuke gets to challenge her one last time for old time's sake as they reconciled.

Keagan Gerald Aurelio Ashworth

Specialty: Fire

Class: Gym Challenger for the first three gyms until he decides it's not for him, Coordinator, son of the current Champion

The tritagonist. Basically the Bianca type of rival who starts off not knowing what he wants to do but joins the journey for the fun of it. He's just going along with his friends who have their own reasons for doing the gym challenge. Most people were betting on him becoming the next champion cause of his father and his performances in gyms back it up - he's typically done by the time the player is done with plot stuff and his pokemon levels tend to be ten levels ahead of the curve to demonstrate he is far more experienced in this stuff than Fiona and Shizuke. It's just that he's bored with winning. He only accepts challenges from the player just cause it's the only times he loses - the only times battling is even exciting anymore. Then he discovers Contests which has a whole new set of rules and he was hooked. Since then, he'll mainly be challenged in contests and can no longer be fought for training.

As a travel companion, whenever you stop by a town you'll probably find him at shops and you can get a free random item from him daily cause he is an impulse buyer - it's like how the mom in Johto takes some of your money and buys random items with it except Keagan gives stuff completely for free. Much like Fiona and Shizuke, he can be challenged for training reasons but his battles are completely optional - probably a good thing, he's supposed to be far more challenging to fight with his higher levels but he also gives a lot of money like the rich NPCs BUT once he settles as a coordinator, these events will be lost forever. He pretty much sets up the player if they wanna play hard mode (if you don't challenge him) or easy mode (if you keep challenging him). Unlike the other two, he takes losing pretty well. What's unskippable is how Keagan tends to team up with the player more than he gets to fight them. He does not show up as a challenger in the tournament for the championship but he can be seen showing up with whichever player character you didn't pick, being the one to tell the player they're gonna challenge the championship win or lose after recovering from their crash out two gyms ago. By end game, he can be found as the new champion coordinator and it's optional to challenge him. He also appears as a bonus challenger at the battle tower and as the default npc battle partner in a double tag team challenge more.

Blair and Blake Crawford

Specialty: Psychic/Ghost (Blair), Dark/Ghost (Blake)

Class: Team Grunt, vigilante actually, later Gym Challenger (Blair) or Coordinator (Blake)

The Crawford twins are the edgier rivals. Think, Gladion. Or heck, they're kinda like Team Rocket, they keep popping up "causing trouble" except not really. They seem to be involved with an evil team, robbing what seemed to be a "good" organization involved with charity or something. Anyway the twins knew what's really up and the player character and friends keep fighting them whenever they run into each other cause they thought the twins are criminals. Not that the twins begrudge them, they knew what it looks like. This organization has the government in the palm of their hands so they can only rely on themselves to stop them. Now how did they end up joining such a sussy looking team?

They used were orphans turned assistants to a famous archeologist/historian who was later discredited for trying to expose the organization the legitmate way. The archeologist/historian is actually Lucia, but she's been branded as a witch and framed for experimenting on pokemon when it's actually the organization doing that. Anyway, the twins are stuck with her, got accused by proxy and their goal is to stop the organization and clear their names. They've tried to warn the trio but like, they weren't holding their breathes they'd believe them... Up until the rival goes back to their hometown just in time for the evil organization to attack. They took this opportunity to convince the other two to help them cause they were gonna fight the organization anyway, but now they got extra help who, at the very minimum, will take care of some of the grunts until they find their other friend.

Once their names are cleared, the twins can peacefully return to society and do things normal teens do. Blair for one, wanted to challenge gyms as she's rather proud of the battling skills she developed while on the run. Blake enjoys watching contests and festivals and is kinda sick of fighting, he'd prefer to perform instead. I figured they'd show up in cameos post-game, like challenging the battle tower or being unlockable tag team mates or even be seen competing in a contest, though they both show up, Blair is notably more often seen in battle events while Blake is more often seen in contest events. Or if you team up with one of the twins, you'll end up fighting the other one at some point, probably the only way to fight either twin. They have a whole mini-arc in a DLC with a new area.

Natalia Hale

Specialty: Water/Poison

Class: Gym Leader (3rd), Coordinator (or she helps manage the contest hall of her town)

She's the gym leader and the one who introduces the player and their friends to Contests - notably got Keagan into it. Probably marketed contests to Keagan more than the other two because she may be crushing on him. Being from the town between Shizuke's which is rich in berries and other plants and Fiona's which is famous for tech and metalworks, Natalia's town enjoyed a lot of commerce as the trading point between the two. It's a very artsy town near a lake and their gym specializes in Water types.

She's a lot lower on the character tier compared to rivals but she does notably show up a lot more to help than the other gym leaders. She's like, the face of the gym leaders association and is a minor idol with her contest performances. Only shows up in contests and can only be fought in her gym.

Damien Guerrero

Specialty: Rock/Ground/Normal

Class: Breeder or apprenticing at a pokemon daycare

He's not fond of battling. Fiona crushed his ego back in the pokemon academy so he dropped out and decided to live peacefully taking care of pokemon since then. The daycare is located in the route towards Natalia's town. He has a talent in grooming pokemon and is Natalia's go-to to keep her pokemon in their best condition for contests. In addition to being the one players can leave their pokemon to, he can offer to groom pokemon to raise their affection levels and sells contest accessories in exchange for money or berries.

... The player may be cool with letting him take care of their pokemon or buying his stuff, but the rival will express dread around him and will never be caught dead anywhere near his building. And yes, Keagan buys his stuff too and will still occassionally give the player some of his haul. Can be fought in the battle tower but is never a tag team option.

Zephyr Ryder

Specialty: Flying/Electric/Bug

Class: Student, planning to be a Gym Challenger but isn't sure if he wants to be champion, he just wanst to travel

He can be found at the starting town. An optional fight so he doesn't really count as a rival. He skipped several grades but isn't actually old enough to start his gym challenge journey. Got mad. Ran away. The next time the player sees him, he'll be at the casino in the town of the 2nd Gym where he'll bribe the player not to report him by giving them a coin purse. Once again, optional fight. Then he finally gets caught by his father who turns out to be in the town of the 6th gym as a merchant. Might be a mini arc, probably optional. After game, he can apparently snuck out again and can be fought at the battle tower.

General Notes:

The pokemon listed here for the player characters are all optional event pokemon and which ones appear depends on the player character. For example, if one chooses to play as Shizuke, you'll find his Shroomish in his house and you have the option to take it with you. These pokemon are special, starting at a higher affection level, perfect IVs and perfect Nature. The game will encourage using them but won't stop the player from just leaving them in a box.

... In that same list, I'd say the Sinnoh starters are gonna be replaced by whatever starter pokemon are there in the region but most artwork of the main three will default to giving Shizuke the grass starter, Fiona the water starter and Keagan the fire starter. If the player chooses to diverge from this, then the rival will get the starter with the advantage and Keagan gets the one with the disadvantage. The three were never that strict with their teams TBH, Keagan even cannonically has at least one grass type.

The starting town has a pokemon academy with boarding, which is where the player character and their rival stayed while away from their homes that're like, three towns away. It's owned by Keagan.

All hints of romance are gonna be rather vague with only small hints like the pokemon games. Notably, Keagan's dialogues are a little flirtier if Fiona is the player character or Blair is noticably chattier if the player is Shizuke. But honestly, it's all vague enough that people can easily ship just about anyone with anyone. I could say Shizuke and Fiona are strictly platonic in this one but they got the lion's share of screen time and is the most important dynamic in the game so I wouldn't be surprised if they get shipped.

I see Fiona as more of the canon protagonist for this one rather than Shizuke. She has the ambition. Their canon starters align naturally. But the story does get modified slightly depending on which one of them is the playable character such as dialogue (whereas Shizuke would be more depressed and say he considered quitting after the 6th gym, Fiona would say she'd wanna train alone with her mom and is more angry about it).

[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]

OC-TOBER DAY 21: AS AN ADULT

For this one, I chose to age up my youngest OC from Day 17, Zephyr Ryder! I just don't draw the kid enough so I might as well give this one to him. I can see the kid grow up looking a lot like his father, Travis, but significantly scragglier. He never really filled out, his impoverished childhood still took a toll on his growth. As he got older, much like with his innocence, he shed off his rather cherub appearances and developed more angular features. Very much a delinquent, but more of a "never follows the rules for funsies" type than the truly dangerous sort. He's not as mean as he looks though, he's running a different scam compared to when he was a kid. At 10, the scam was having an innocent looking kid with a fucked up sense of moral committing crimes thinking it's all just a game. As a teen or young adult, it's more about looking more intimidating than he actually is cause he's become painfully aware of how weak he physically is. There's the need to protect himself, as the world isn't as full of nice people as he used to believe.

Though there's an interesting way for his growth to branch out in BTaL, as in that AU, the story ends with his father unmasked as the supervillain, Pavonis. This version of him will be significantly more guarded (towards most people) and angry (towards his father specifically) than the original that simply matured and became less naive. Unlike in the original, he has a more negative rep and got ostrasized - well, more than ever. He's used to being somewhat of a black sheep for being that poor scholarship student in an elite school, but being the son of a supervillian took it to a new level. Man, wouldn't it be funny if this guy gets chosen to wield a miraculous and join the hero team... But this is something BTaL won't get to cover as its ideal setting is long after that story would've ended. Saving it for a speculative sequel I might never write lol.