ethereal-kloud

[ethereal-kloud]

sometimes i get the urge to write genshin as close to canon compliant as i can get, in a fic form.

but there’s the issue of the timeline for events + world quests + limited time events (lantern rite, windblume, lisa’s thing a while back, arataki itto’s beetle fight event, etc)

sure, some quests have prerequisite quests you need to do, but some don’t and that makes it really difficult to find out where exactly in the plot they fit in.

example: the aranara quest with rana! that’s before the sumeru archon quest (i’m like 90% sure traveler mentions that they know what withering zones are, and tighnari comments that he isn’t the first forest ranger they’ve met? i’m also not sure if that dialogue changes if traveler hasn’t started that quest. i don’t know if you can, and going through genshin again is uh. not something i want to do.)

but uh, with that quest, i technically started it before i completed liyue’s archon quest (i was avoiding it) and in that quest, there’s a couple kids you need to tell stories of your adventures. and um, somehow, traveler could tell them inazuma and liyue, despite the fact that i hadn’t done them at that point.

also like,,, how long as traveler been awake in teyvat? because,,, technically, in game, the lantern rite and windblume happen once a year, but multiple have technically happened.

additionally: character voice lines

where would they fit??? the ‘hello’ lines aren’t what they say to traveler when they’re actually in a quest??? and when would traveler have time to meet the ones that don’t actually show up in main quests (albedo, mona, klee, (i think) etc).

wait, the teapot.

and story quests, ugh, there’s just a lot to include and plan out and i’m getting stressed just thinking about it.

(zhongli’s story quest: you need to get on that one boat thing in liyue but apparently i hadn’t done the quest to get permission to get on that boat. when i did after zhongli’s quest, i accidentally picked the one person that ended my searching for a way to stay on the ship, and the npc in charge of the ship said that they saw traveler talk to multiple people and get denied by most of them, despite the fact that i,,, didn’t talk to any but one.)

and the descriptions i would have to go through, hm.

maybe just dialogue. but even then, some of the english lines ummm don’t match up with the text, i’ve noticed. some is just extra sound to show character traits, but others has like, a word off the meaning the same and idk how i’d pick.

and cutscenes, um, the traveler’s gem things glow with whatever element the god of the nation they’re in is, even if i stay on anemo traveler 99% of the time. so idk if they’re technically supposed to resonate with the element they’re using, or just the lingering elements in the air/earth/whatever (elemental sight but not???)

i almost forgot about the extra content that’s only in chinese.

there’s apparently a ‘food blog’? and that has extra characterization that’s just,,, not in the game but just as valid because it’s by the game developers???? the fact that traveler ‘writes’ those entries, that they know the recipes, means that at some point, traveler learned how to make it from them. when did they have time for this????

aaaaaa i’m like 90% sure that’s why any genshin impact actually following the plot fics have never been finished. the other 10% is just because all the nations aren’t out yet and foreshadowing for things you don’t know is hard especially if you want it to be very very canon compliant. if you make something up with what you know and it’s wrong, then you’d have to tag it as canon divergent, which is kind of :/

this isn’t really an idea just rambling i guess. i want to do that, but all the dialogue and motivation

(and that i’ve gotten. semi-obsessed with star rail. genuinely i think i’ve written more for that in a week than i have for genshin unfortunately)

(months later i come back and i have now gotten obsessed with wuthering waves 😔)

but like yeah anyway also traveler loses like 90% of their fights even though they can. use multiple elements = multiple reactions. like yeah losing your powers getting used to it but. haven’t you been here for like years now 😭

[ethereal-kloud]

my problem with writing anything is i need it to be (at least semi) chronological if i post anything, but i hate writing chronologically.

[ethereal-kloud]

um hi i’m not dead

Someone stops.

And Kyōya breathes.

(or, Kyōya remembers a life of normalcy before all of this madness. He still wouldn’t change a thing.)

Hibari Kyōya is three years old. That is a fact.

(They were there, watched him take his first glimpse of the world, heard his sobbing, recorded his baby steps and recorded every monumental occasion they could have with their occupation.)

Hibari Kyōya is a genius. That is also a fact.

(Walking sooner, speaking sooner, awareness in his eyes, absorbing lessons with something unexplainable behind his gaze, something both sad and apathetic, something a child should not feel.)

Hibari Kyōya knows what death feels like.

(This is something he wishes was not a fact.

He knows that something is wrong with this place he is in. He knows that he doesn’t quite belong, even with the people who call themselves his family. He knows that he shouldn’t be like this but he can’t help it and he’s suffocating and—)

“Kyōya?” an unfamiliar voice calls. Kyōya hums in response.

He is fine.

(He’s not.)

—————

He remembers the instant when he had first opened his eyes.

A spike of anxiety and confusion, his skin crawling from the feelings of hands on him (offoffoff), irritation from the noise of the world. And then fuzzy, inconsistent blobs of color, even further blurred and splotchy with his tears (why was he crying?).

He tried to speak, to ask where he was and who they were, but all that came out were frustrated babbling sounds whose meaning was further muddled by the sound of his tears (why) and being unable to really catch his breath. He opened his mouth to scream, but something is pushed in and he can’t breathe and instincts take over when something sweet trickles down his throat. It’s pleasant— more so than the brightness of wherever he is now, but he doesn’t understand. It leaves, and the liquid drips down his chin, but his eyes grow heavy.

He scrambled to tell his mind to stay awake and conscious, a wave of drowsiness blanketing all of his previous rush of emotions, leaving only exhaustion in its wake.

‘Nothing makes sense,’ he struggled to think clearly, recognizing nothing. Only a comforting warm thrumming under his heart prevents him from trying to shout again, a film over what exactly he was doing before coming into awareness here dulling its importance to him at the moment.

(It’s clear that he has very different memories of this moment (of before) than the rest of them do. As cliche as it might sound, this changed both everything important and lost nothing at all of value, in regards to the future.)

And yet, with none of this knowledge just yet, Kyōya succumbs to the call of sleep.

[ethereal-kloud]

what if: someone (teen, well adjusted, probably) reincarnates as hibari kyōya?

think of a reincarnated male (probably) from modern world, no magic or anything other than technology, probably no major religious beliefs in life-after-death or anything of the sort.

and then imagine that same teen suddenly waking up as a baby, where wanting to walk off by himself is perfectly fine and okay. where sometimes some new relative of his has the ability to make him drowsy, or can heal his scrapes with some strange glow, or the fact that his great uncle is somehow some a literate baby looking thing, but is also somehow older than his grandma.

and the kidnappings, probably, because hey, it’s eye of the storm fon’s baby relative that he’s obviously fond of, right? they could totally get something out of him!

(wrong and nobody ever tried again. probably partly because of what fon did in response, and partly because how was this actual toddler active.

if this happened in canon, i imagine kyōya’s mind would be still fuzzy enough to not have that awareness of the danger he’s in and the will to spark dying will flames. but this one??? with self preservation and the knowledge of dying once sends him straight to activation.)

maybe tsuna or takeshi or maybe even shōichi??? reminding oc!kyōya of somebody he used to know.

ummm when i wrote this i think i had a scene where fon found out (my reasoning was that he saw that kyōya looked like him, old in a too young body) and asked about it and i think it was meant to give oc a little more closure (though i also wrote that he had resolved himself to live as kyōya when he was four??? dunno how accurate that is.)

i,,, actually have a lot more snippets and semi-incorrect-quotes and headcanons than i thought. i guess i’ll include them here, they’re not as bad as i thought they were.

———

kyōya has fon wrapped around his fingers, not that he knows it

Kyōya is all instinct, would go in guns (tonfa) blazing. However, oc is more cautious, and can plan how to talk and scheme his way out of a situation. He also like controlled violence, and so Mukuro’s battle goes a bit differently

kyōya has all but adopted all the street cats. and birds. all of them. including a falcon he is particularly fond of. nobody knows how in the world he tamed that, but he did.

kyōya has connections

kyōya also has minor mist flames

kyōya probably uses his old identity as a disguise, if he had to, simply because who he used to be does not exist.

———

(later part of the conversation because the beginning makes me cringe)

Fon nods, briefly and sadly, but with a weight lifted off of his shoulders. Probably slightly happy that his nephew was never replaced, he’s just always been a bit off and knowing. He probably also thinks it makes Kyōya feel better by talking about it. He’s kind like that.

“Remember to call if you need anything, Kyōya,” he reminds, face back into that calm state. “I will always have time for you.”

He jumps off, but Kyōya is— that reassurance means more to him than he would ever know. Because he knows he’s busy, with the Triads sending him on diplomatic missions because he’s unaffiliated with any particular branch, and that he’s completely fine with the workload, but sometimes just drops on his bed in Kyōya’s room that he had added a year ago. He knows, and to offer at least words and an open ear for his problems of annoying loud children and the fact that the adults just won’t learn, means the world to Kyōya.

(But if his great-uncle ever wants to break free and they won’t let him… He just has to say the word.

Kyōya doesn’t just keep the peace in Namimori, after all, and Irie promised him any favor, as long as he didn’t have to get physically envolved.

Kyōya is a Cloud, and his Physical Territory is Namimori. However, who said a Cloud only had one? Who decided that all Clouds only kept one thing, weren’t greedy for another and weren’t possessive enough to pull it off?)

———

“Uncle.”

“Yes, Kyōya—?”

“A not-baby with a yellow pacifier is in Namimori. He is shooting a first year middle schooler named Sawada Tsunayoshi with bullets that cause him to shout something about his “Dying Will” in his boxers.”

Fon paused. “…I see. So, Reborn is in Namimori. Ah— I heard a rumor that he was going to Japan to train the next Vongola Decimo. Perhaps that’s why?” he suggested. “That Herbivore? Please, the way he’s doing it is just going to make him terrified and reject it even more. He might even become more like his mother as a defense mechanism.”

———

"Hibari, is that a falcon." Despite the format, Kyōya knows it wasn't really a question. "Yes. You have eyes, don't you?" he dismisses. Honestly, his falcon isn't that much of a shock, is it? He knows for a fact he flies around Namimori regularly, and there are no hunters in his town that would dare shoot down any of the birds.

———

reborn: is looking looking for kyōya

kyōya: in the park

reborn: ah, there he—

reborn:

kyōya:

reborn:

kyōya, sighing: what do you want, hitman?

reborn: why are you covered in cats

kyōya: it's winter

reborn, exasperated: nevermind! i'll come back later

[ethereal-kloud]

sorry uhhh life happened and took all of my motivation to write literally anything with it.

anyway umm suddenly genshin dropkicked me in the face a couple months ago but i also didn’t feel like writing any of the ideas stuck in my head but like

seelies.

admittedly, not much is said about them in the genshin lore (see the wiki) but what little history they do have is interesting.

first off, (the race) seelies are really, really old. probably-maybe before celestia kind of old. and there’s so many mysteries surrounding them (some caused by the lack of information) but that also gives way to a lot of fanfic ideas.

did they live like humans (who they guided) with limited lives? extended lives? god-like lifespans?

who cursed them?

what happened to that traveler that married a seelie? (separated and cursed to forget, but did they die like that???)

is them guiding the traveler to treasure the last gift they want because of their “purpose” when they were humanoid??,?

anyway the point is i have a lot of questions about this that will probably never be answered.

the thing is, seelies are old. if the wiki is even remotely close to being accurate, the race is probably far older than morax/rex lapis. existed long enough for whichever gods were in charge then to task them with guiding humanity. (teaching them, etc)

and even when they fell around the time morax was really young, even with a majority of the race losing their memories and knowledge, what they used to be is still remembered, if only barely.

when that seelie married that traveler, and calamity followed 30 days later, (probably) causing the seelie race to be “cast aside by the heavens”, they became the “seelie” shape out of grief. maybe because of what that first seelie’s actions caused for them (beloved/important role in their civilization, maybe?) and maybe partially because of the curse stripping them of their knowledge (something they were known for).

the seelie courts are also their “old dwelling places” and those forms are their “regressed forms” meaning that while seelies may have spent most of their time in beautiful, humanoid forms, they weren’t always like that. in fact, their current forms may be their original forms before they adapted (something they’re still good at, even in these forms! see: chasm and dragonspine and some in inazuma)

but! it’s canon that not all of the seelie race turned into the spirit forms immediately— (implied Goddess of Flowers, and the wiki even states “…a few managed to retain their humanoid forms” even without being named)

(warning ummm this is where i started rambling about a story idea that will,,, probably never be fleshed out)

but anyway this sort of vagueness leads to my brain going “what if”

there are also mini, baby-like seelies. those are canon.

seelies were tasked to guide humanity, traveling aside them and teaching them.

what if one of those baby seelies (or even adult seelie, really, i just find a baby one cuter) retained their human form? losing a majority of their memories as caused by the curse, but young enough and/or strong enough to retain just enough to remember their purpose.

seelies were probably more god than human (re: humanoid forms) and so they probably lived through quite a bit of teyvat’s history after their race’s fall. never lingering, but traveling and helping and being recorded in a few tales and bard songs, remembered by a too long scarf that almost seems to float at times, intuition that somehow allows them to know what people need and just how to get it to them, a manner that seems both too close and too far away from people, a soft song whispering in the wind being the only sign of their appearance or disappearance with the absence of it.

probably slept a lot like venti, to keep their memory from degrading even further, and they probably never hear of their stories, traveling and traveling and helping and sleeping and (“we have to teach them. what use is our knowledge of its all locked away with us—?”) and dreaming (“who are you?” “hello!”) and waking and repeat.

maybe they even came across abyss!sibling traveling with dain, remaining a faint memory to them after disappearing. (“you shouldn’t forget” “huh?”)

and then canon!genshin time.

then idk i just really liked the idea of still sleepy!seelie running into kaveh having some sort of problem, absolutely not willing to go to anybody about it (especially not his roommate, who probably would help but be infuriating every step of the way) and seelie having woken up recently, awake but not fully, cheerfully and groggy still, distracting him into playing a game of tag, somehow.

chasing them around sumeru city, always barely out of reach until he’s breathless and they’ve let him catch them at the grand bazaar, thanking him for helping them wake up, and before he realizes hey why’s a child just running around without parents???? why did they not question him chasing after one??? he looks up from the ground and they’re gone.

confused, but having things to do, probably as an adult, and perhaps this is before traveler gets to sumeru and he’s yet to leave for that project that kept him out of the drama when traveler did arrive, he continues with his day until he goes back to the house he live in with alhaitham and find a neat little gift wrapped box, with whatever he had needed earlier that day inside of it (if it was small enough idk what an architect needs actually)

he obviously asks his roommate about it, but he was probably out doing scribe things or reading a book, and why would he care about a package that kaveh received? (probably habit)

except it dawns, now, that the package means that whoever sent it knew that kaveh lived with alhaitham. and where they lived. while kaveh did complain about his roommate to almost anyone who would listen, he wouldn’t give out his address to non-friends, and alhaitham doesn’t either.

(i don’t think there’s post offices in genshin. the traveler has to deliver letters, sometimes, and it has to be given in person, so i’m pretty sure they just send a person and there’s no official record of where people live edit: nvm apparently at least sumeru has one??? new archon quest part immediately proves me wrong ig.)

and the gift doesn’t have a name other than his own attached to it.

(it barely crosses his mind that the child he’s played with that morning had said that they’d pay him back while he was breathless at the end. there’s no way that a merchant would sell something like what he’s needed to a child, right?)

and traveler running into them afterward, them wandering nearby during the beginning of their attempts to get to inazuma, perhaps, getting run into by that thief with a vision and letting kazuha and traveler catch up to them just a bit sooner.

kazuha, who is presumably more connected with wind than most is, can hear that seelie is possibly more than they seem. can hear a song unwilling to be forgotten, louder than normal people can, sense the way the wind seems to lift the child up playfully, lighter than air itself, and yet heavy with a grief they cling to.

seelie, who can’t activate his friend’s vision, either, but flinches when they touch it, act as if they’re about to cry.

(visions are human’s ambitions. their wishes. the traveler could see them even disconnected from their wielder, and yae miko knew that they persisted being taken. why wouldn’t seelie, again probably more god than human, a guide to humanity, be able to see those hopes?

they could see the determination, and a part of them wanted to cheer them on, wanted to see them succeed—

but they know what the colorless shade of the vision means)

nothing probably changes from that point; seelie doesn’t feel the need to head to inazuma even if they could beat traveler in a fight (they can’t) and traveler needs to find their sibling. they part ways, leaving traveler and kazuha mildly curious, but not enough to chase after them.

and idk when this would happen lore wise, but eventually, they would meet venti, and he would go on about knowing songs from the past, present, and future, and the longing that hits them is both expected and takes them entirely by surprise. it’s been so long. a melody in their ears, a soft voice, the end, but not for them. not for her, either, and yet they are truly the last now, and forevermore until they too meet their fate.

(“oh? do you have a song in mind?” the bard may ask, carefully strumming the strings of his lyre.

“…can you complete it?” they might beg. “it goes like this.”

the bard’s eyes may widen, a tune that existed long before he was a wisp, but one he does know. a song that should be lost in time, those who knew it having long lost the ability to sing.

but he does play it, nonetheless, and the seelie— they

[“don’t resent them, darling, for what crime did they commit? love? it’s okay, it’s alright, we are only crying because—“]

the seelie might cry.)

ummm i also wanted something with nahida since the goddess of flowers is heavily implied to have been one of those seelies that retained their humanoid forms, but i’m not quite sure how that would play out? with the end of the sumeru archon quest (they would forget, too, that rukkhadevata had been the one to know her, and maybe they knew her personally, or just from their society, and maybe they wouldn’t know how to react with a semi-amnesiac goddess that knew one of them after the calamity.)

rex lapis, too, since seelie would technically be older than him, but probably due to being asleep for years and years and never fully being raised would be more childish and/or naive than him. more willing to break rules, contracts, if it meant more people ended up happy and safe, and they learned something from it.

i like the idea that despite this, they would have their moments of ancient wisdom long faded, and share the knowledge of loss (archon war and them witnessing whatever happened in the halls of angels, where they played their final tune)

[ethereal-kloud]

this has been lying around for a while but i kinda fell out the fandom so eh might as well post it here

obviously danganronpa spoilers so uhhh be warned??

desc: Enoshima Junko had always been a bit odd.

Usually, it wasn’t a cruel or sadistic sort of oddity, but a distant sort apathy— something that made her seem all too far away. Occasionally, it’d be an overwhelming bombardment of tears, seemingly set off for no particular reason.

And then she remembered.

(what would’ve been a quote from the “story”)

The day Mukuro came back, she found her younger twin sister sobbing on her knees. “What’s wrong?” she asked, concerned. She had only been gone for a couple of months— she knew she hadn’t said a word before disappearing, but what could have set a off a 13-year-old in that timeframe?

Her sister’s blue eyes snapped upwards, teary and distracted. “M—“ Junko choked on her tears, “Mukuro-nee—“

The older twin startled. The blonde hadn’t called her that in… What was going on?

or: someone is born as Enoshima Junko, killing “former her’s” plan of despair before it even started.

———

i actually started it but it’s terrible and awkward and so occ i would actually die if i posted it

if it isn’t obvious already— reincarnation shenanigans. they wouldn’t remember clearly about their previous life, and definitely not about a game or anime they had probably played/watched to make fun of in their free time. her background wasn’t really elaborated on, so i would’ve had fun making that up completely

anyway canon!junko obviously had major issues, but she obviously understood how people were.

she wouldn’t have been able to act and trick and blackmail as many people as she did if she didn’t. i like to think it was a lack of ability to empathize with people + morals, and a wild desperation to “fit in” and if she couldn’t, just make everyone like her

with someone coming into the picture, though, with those morals and the memory of being able to think and care about others genuinely, she’d do it by habit, even if she didn’t understand why.

———

quotes i wanted to use (actually i made all of them up on the spot but shhh i like them)

(Junko doesn’t want to be a monster. But what will happen if she plays normal? Doesn’t get into Hopes Peak? She knows that her sister wouldn’t join if she didn’t. Knows that’s a difference already in their relationship, but—

Is she willing to risk changing everything?)

-

“Hi!” chirped Naegi Makoto, the goddamned protagonist of what Junko wished was just a fever-dream. What were the chances, she wondered, of this meeting happen the one time she was weak-willed enough to try and check the lottery area for Hopes Peak? “Are you here to apply for the—”

A blur comes running through the mall, knocking into Naegi, and begins to furiously whisper at him and gesturing at Junko, at what she assumes is an attempt to be subtle.

It’s not.

-

Junko thinks about meeting Naegi and his sister, about what she saw of his parents, remembers what was implied in that spinoff.

She hesitates— because this is a large decision, but…

She’ll be able to control the variables this way. She doesn’t have to get close, it’s fine, people are almost always someone different away from the camera.

She breathes in, and begins to write an email.

‘I, Enoshima Junko, humbly accept your invitation for me to attend Hopes Peak Academy as the Super High School Level Model,’ it reads. ‘It’s truly an honor,’ she lies.

-

‘Komaeda Nagito,’ her brain informs her clinically, ‘current Super High School Level Lucky Student.’ He’s smiling at her, but—

It’s not in that wild, unhinged way she’s starting to remember those games showed. It’s not soft, and it’s strained, but it’s a genuine smile.

Is this what she ruined—

“Hello!” he greets, “Oh, you’re… Enoshima-san, yes? The future Super High School Level Model, right? Oh, it’s so lucky of me to have—” and he rambles on, motioning wildly until she hears a call in the distance of his name.

“Hm? Oh, it seems I’ve got to go— it was nice to meet you!” and he turns, and promptly trips of his own feet, dodging a can that was flying towards him, but gains what looks like a painful cut on his forehead instead.

He laughs it off sheepishly, and rushes away.

Junko…

-

“Oh!” she hears a familiar voice, and freezes, “Enoshima-san!”

Junko curses too herself, and glances behind her, praying to a god she doesn’t believe in that it’s not who she thinks it is. ‘Brown hair,’ she thinks, wanting to sink down in her seat and already wailing in her head.

It’s Naegi. Of course it is. She has the worst luck ever.

“Naegi. Hello,” she replies, stiffly. It’s only polite.

-

‘Wait wait wait I forgot this plot happened in my first year— can’t I get a break?!’

Junko stares at Hinata Hajime, who’s talking with some Hopes Peak official, and she can’t help but overhear.

Hope Project, they call it. He just has to sign the form, they say. Or else, he knows what will happen, and he wouldn’t want that, would he? they threaten.

The blonde can see Hinata’s will weaken with every blow they carefully place against him. The officials look up, and, hell, they’ve seen her. They whisper, “I hope you know this conversation should stay between us?” and smile at her.

She smiles back, but in the comfort of her own mind, thinks, ‘I have to fix this too. Right after the Kuzuryu situation, too. Fuck.’

[ethereal-kloud]

Ralsei wants to protect the Dark World. Maybe it’s because he’s soft, or that he doesn’t like fighting, but he doesn’t want a war.

…Not again, anyway.

(Or: Ralsei lived through the Roaring. He was the only one who did.)

———

Ralsei remembers, when he was a small child, when the times were different. Where there weren’t four kings, but only a single king and queen and heir, beloved by their people, and he remembers being a part of that time, personally.

Remembers being that sole Prince, being the one to listen to the tales of their history, learning the lessons he needed to in order to be able to rule his people. He remembers being determined to be just as good, remembers visiting the towns and the shops and simply seeing how all of the people interacted. Remembers loving and being proud.

He remembers when the Knight came, too.

It was a tragedy.

———

It was a normal day, Ralsei reminisces. Ralsei didn’t thinks anything was off, though the day was slower than the previous one. A nice day, his father had said, smiling.

He can barely remember what it looked like, but he remembers that he did. Kindly and wise, like the king he was supposed to grow into. Only a feeling, though just a feeling, because too much time has passed, even if Ralsei doesn’t feel any older.

[ethereal-kloud]

Kris loves their family. Loves their friends, too. They love and love and love— sometimes, they think it’s the only thing they can do.

But with everything changing— Dess dying, their parents separating, Asriel leaving, Rudolph getting sick, the mishap with their SOUL, being controlled, only getting a few moments of painful, painful freedom— somewhere along the way, they might’ve lost themselves, they think (they know).

But Kris has hurt them, even unintentionally, and that is unacceptable. And Kris never wanted for them to be hurt, and well, Knights were always meant to protect, weren’t they?

(Or: after the events of DELTARUNE, Kris resets back to when the Dreemurrs first found them.

…

Resets were never meant to go back so far, especially not for the whole world. Especially not by someone without a complete SOUL, without a SOUL at all.)

———

Kris blinked.

Where were they? They hadn’t been here before, they’d been… No, wait, they don’t, remember?

They glance in front of them, vision somehow blurry (was it like that before?), and thinks they see some white and purple and gold, thinks they hear some muffled conversation, before their head suddenly feels like the weight of the world was dumped onto it, and—

(Panicked voices, shouting, something fuzzy, and darkdarkdark)

Oh. They’re passing out.

Everything fades to black.

And Kris dreams.

———

Toriel fluttered around nervously, anxiously glancing at the clock and the child on the bed. Somehow, they seemed even more ill than they had when they’d first collapsed.

The child, Kris, they had warily told them, had nodded to being taken along with them, back home, before something had shifted in their expression, and Toriel’s heart lurched, thinking that they had changed their mind. But no, they had simply blinked at them, with dazed eyes, before their knees seemed to suddenly grow weak on them, and they groaned and fell forward, Asgore (thankfully) catching them before their body (so small, smaller than Asriel) could hit the floor.

————

and that’s all i had for that. i dunno— i went through a deltarune phase maybe a couple of weeks ago and figured i’d post this (and a couple others) here before i forget about them

[ethereal-kloud]

[ethereal-kloud]

what if: tsuna meets literally all the arcobaleno other than reborn before canon?

let’s say, skull got slightly tired of doing Carcassa family missions, and went to japan. maybe to watch a godzilla movie, or maybe just to drift (because no matter what, he’s still a cloud) and comes across a tiny tsuna. perhaps in namimori, but maybe nana won a trip somewhere else in japan and they met there.

in the end, they meet somewhere and hey, skull might be the weakest arcobaleno, but he’s not useless. he’s loud and seeks attention, but he’s also abnormally resistant to dying— he didn’t get that immortal title from nowhere, after all.

and, well, maybe tsuna reminds him a little of himself, especially with his last name (seriously? vongola cant even give them a fake last name? or take the girl’s?) and obvious cluelessness about all things mafia.

and if being in the mafia and around the arcobaleno have taught him anything, you can’t just leave if your involved, and bloodline and flame type is everything. this tiny boy, clumsy and still struggling to be kind, will almost definitely be dragged into the blood that is mafia, and skull can’t— isn’t enough to hide them away if he could convince them in the first place

but skull knows, that if he had a clue of the mafia before he was cursed, it would’ve made things a hell of a lot simpler and easier to adjust if someone had told him what was going on before or even just during the beginning.

but he also knows that the kid is ten at most, probably only actually around seven, and that’s not really a thing you tell a child.

but they stay in contact, because nana is oblivious like that, and tsuna's young enough (~6/7) that being friends with an oddly mature (if hyper at times) baby is okay in his mind. he's young enough that he's just grateful for a friend who doesn't call him "dame"

and so, sporadically, skull will pop by to namimori, japan and visit tsuna, not quite telling him about the mafia, but showing that something is off.

and then fon's next, maybe visiting kyōya from afar (because like 9 years old or not, that's a cloud and he's 'trespassing'), when his pacifier lights up and he's curious enough to go see which arcobaleno is visiting the quiet namimori town, and is surprised to find skull, calmer than he's ever shown the rest of them with a small boy

and fon's nicer to skull than the rest of the arcobaleno ever were, probably even admonishing the rest for bullying him every once in a while, and so they quietly talk when tsuna's gone to bed after telling the story he was reluctant to tell, of an absent father,

skull and fon talk about telling him the mafia later, because he's only 8.

not yet.

and everything is fine, for a while, now two arcobaleno dropping by to visit a kid who was so happy for just one normal interaction

but the viper shows up, because viper is nosy (comes with being an information gatherer) and something that's interesting enough to have two arcobaleno regularly meeting up (even if it was just skull and fon, when none of them ever did after the curse?) now that's something they need to know.

and they take a flight to japan, easily finding the two of them talking with a young, normal-looking boy, but. someone who can keep the attention of two of the mafia world's greatest has to be someone special, someone important, right?

(kind of, sort of, not really, all at once. eventually, they figure out that it's not really the point, but for now...)

they poke around, snarky and infinitely curious, and find out about tsuna's blood, and how ignorant he is, and well the varia might be paying them, but they're not paying for this information, and it'll be great blackmail

(they never do use it as blackmail)

they do get the story, in bits and pieces, from fon and skull and even some from tsuna himself

and well, later, when they've visiting again, the mafia gets out. because viper is good at information and keeping it, but they've also grown up around mafia and not civilians, and while skull is better at keeping a normal amount of energy, he does get hyper and can't stop things from being blurted out at times, and fon's simply not there, out on a mission or something

and so viper comments on something mafia, and tsuna's in hearing range, and now damage control has to be done, he's only 10, but that's better than 6 or 8 or 9, and they can't take it back.

they do convince tsuna to wait until fon's back to explain everything (giving him the basics [yes they're mafia, no they're not going to hurt him, yeah there's more they're not telling him but they will])

fon's back, explanations (oh dad's still alive???) and tsuna's wary for a bit because mafia, but they're also the first people to treat him normally and he softens just as quickly.

now that the mafia conversation's out of the way, they take him to mafia land on a trip, a 'just in case' type trip where he can still have fun in the civilian sections

and sure, viper has those nets that hide the glowing, but they haven't quite perfected the mist technique that hides the fact that they're an arcobaleno just yet, and colonnello is good at his job, and pops by to see what brought 3 arcobaleno to mafia land together

and then he meets tsuna, who's civilian enough, but has enough traits from the three of them that he fits in well enough with mafia, and they get along pretty well, once tsuna gets over the guns and his normal reaction to them

and, well, collonnello still loves lal, and would like to keep nothing from her, and calls and casually talks about this cool kid he met that skull, fon, and viper were all fond of, and while lal shouts at him for interrupting her job, she is kind of curious, and eventually takes a leave from CEDEF to see, and hey wait a minute

that's iemitsu's son, except tsuna acts nothing like his father that lal can forget that fact for the most part, and she can see why those four idiots spend time with him, even if he's just 11. and lal thinks about telling her boss, which is definitely what she's supposed to do, right? but thinks of fon telling her that tsuna thought his dad was dead and the fact that he's kept his family uninformed, and decides that he's still civilian, for all that like half of the arcobaleno are around him

and she's not required to report about random civilians she meets, especially not while she's on break

aria, still the sky arcobaleno at this point, not yet pregnant with yuni, saw all of this beforehand, and decides that hey, this boy sky has met almost all of them, why not complete the set before nono condemns this child to a life of blood if he can't change it in the end?

and so, aria, using the giglio nero resources and her foresight, she drops by verde's lab, and tells him there's something interesting he might want to check out, and even if he protests she drags him out anyway and books a flight to japan, when she saw that all the rest would've been there

and now tsuna's verde's-- not quite experiment (something fonder, in the days he spends there) where he is informed of the seal (not tsuna) and thinks of a way to break it without breaking tsuna in the process

tsuna's just so happy to have be surrounded by people who don't blame him, when at 6 he never could think very far.

and verde doesn't quite get there in the two years that he knew tsuna, but he does get close and maybe gets to use it on some other unfortunate sealed person

and then reborn arrives, last, and is maybe thrown a bit when tsuna doesn't comment on the mafia, only screams a little at being threatened to be shot, and asks actual good questions about what his responsibilities are now as a presumed heir of a central mafia famiglia

tsuna's seal breaks from being shot, verde gets notified by some (willingly put there) health checking machine thing, he informs the rest, and then they crash the party, in which reborn finally realizes that tsuna has been aware for a while, and maybe plans to hand vongola to xanxus (who's still alive, apparently) for a few years or forever, depending

[ethereal-kloud]

bnha except the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are switched.

obvious it’s a lot more complicated than that, but this was an idea i had when i was younger— because really, what was stopping izuku from being a villain?

but then, what the whole “heroes” were generally terrible, the “civilians” mostly ignoring that fact as long as they aren’t the ones affected (and pretending they don’t notice when people they know go missing).

one for all is actually the “bad” power, transferred through generations of “heroes”, who mostly stayed in the spotlight to choose a successor (who doesn’t want to be popular? even if you’re kind of evil?)

(i haven’t actually watched bnha in forever, so idk what’s in the anime and the manga/spoilers, so be warned ig???)

shigaraki would actually probably go by Shimura Tenko, and izuku would be the one with the fake name, given to him by all might, who his mom met and promptly introduced them together (maybe dating, maybe just messed up raising/training of Izuku)

some “heroes” could probably have redemption arcs and transfer over to the “villain” side (bc i am biased)— even izuku could, considering just how nice he was in canon, and how the “heroes” would have operated.

Tenko’s backstory would be similar— though he’s probably quirkless and his family doesn’t take it as well as canon!inko, leading to him running away (they’re not dead yet) and running into AFO & his secret revolutionary army thing (the League). Maybe he gets Decay, maybe he doesn’t, but eventually, AFO will pass on afo to him.

(yoichi was just a little less kind— and took the strength quirk his brother gave to be cruel to others who weren’t born weak, who weren’t sick, who never understood illness. AFO is just a little more kind, more wary of the power he has, wants to create a haven for people like him, and is sympathetic to his brother, before being forced to fight against him and all those who he passed OFA to.)

on izuku’s side, he’s fed information of how horrible villains are, how he had to train if he wants OFA, if he wants to be able to save and help people. if he wants to make them proud. and izuku might not understand it, might want to fight, but it’s his mother and who he thought was his idol, and so he grows up the way they want (doubts sometimes clouding his mind).

the whole plot would need a lot of specifics + what in canon that could stay the same, but i thought it was a neat idea (i’ve only ever seen tenko and izuku switched/their groups— never the whole world)

instead of it being a story of how Izuku becomes a hero, it would be Tenko changing the world for the better, one thing at a time + found family probably.

[ethereal-kloud]

i have absolutely no self-control so here’s a continuation of this post.

———

Tsunayoshi is six-years-old when the final parts of his world shatter. It was already so cold, a year ago, and he hurt a lot when everyone started looking at him weirdly and ignoring or hurting him, but…

He had his mom. He had his mom, who loved and doted and cleaned up his wounds and looked so sad but still whispered stories to him when it was time for bed. He had her smiles and cooking and care.

He doesn’t know when it happened, exactly. He used to love his whole class, used to love the town that smiled at him and gave him treats and protected him ‘till he could protect himself. But then something happened.

Changed.

And then the only one who loved Tsuna as much as his bleeding heart did them was his mom. His sweet, caring, beloved mother.

He should have known it wasn’t going to last forever. He’s Dame-Tsuna— he doesn’t get to have good things. Good people.

He had come back, walking with tears in his eyes from the hurt of bruises from tripping (and other things) when his mom hadn’t answered the door.

Tsuna was only six, but he already knew that his mom didn’t work like other parents, that his “dad” (wherever he was) was giving them money to buy toys and medicine and food and stuff. He knew his mom should’ve been home, ‘cause she knew Tsuna came home at that time, and wouldn’t have gone out.

She would have waited.

He didn’t know if he regret opening that door hours after he did. He still doesn’t. It’s been a month.

(It was so red.)

And— and Tsuna knows what people say about him. Knows that people call him stupid and a problematic child and pitied his mom (she’s gonegonegone) for having to raise such a useless child. He knows.

He doesn’t get math anymore, and the kanji jumbles itself up a lot in stories and assignments, and his limbs don’t go where he wants them to go, but he knows. Because they don’t hide it, they say it in front of him, behind him in loud “whispers” and leave notes in his shoe locker.

And he knows that without his mom— that no one wants to take care of him.

Nobody wants an extra burden.

So, Tsuna sat quietly in the corner of the police closet, wondering what he would do. He tripped over everything, was always cold, was pushed and kicked and he screamed and sobbed a lot. He didn’t know how to take care of himself.

And he was really living through a daze. A daze of gray and black and only snapshots of blurry pictures and mostly inaudible voices since he saw it.

But— but then, suddenly, a clear voice broke through his sluggish brain.

“We’ll take him in.”

[ethereal-kloud]

what if: the ten year bazooka plot goes wrong?

shōichi might be a genius, and tsuna might’ve had the vongola hyper intuition, but things can go wrong.

i’m honestly not sure wtf the future arc actually was (sending middle schoolers to fight in a war??? with a megalomaniac?? why??? did nobody notice them gone for like 2 months? or a dead-like tsuna being sent back? or if he was alive-alive, an adult tsuna???) but i’m pretty sure tyl!tsuna planned his "death"? and only told two people (kyōya, and shōichi (who had to be told b/c he was needed in the plan))

but what if shōichi messed with the bazooka just a little more? found out how to work with byakuran’s multiverse power thing and the bazooka’s time-swapping aspects-

and just kind of. made it permanent. and didn’t tell anyone (because he didn’t test it. couldn't, in fear of byakuran finding out (already knew he was a traitor and messing with it). and the other byakurans don’t tell him because that altered bazooka literally manipulates space + time. the evil!byakurans either don’t exist, or it goes even more wrong with tsuna & co dying early and byakuran just easily takes over the world with no vongola lead by tsuna (or no vongola at all) and they just don’t know what made the universe different because it didn’t happen.

(but it did, if you get what i mean)

so, tsuna + friends are sent back before a war, before tsuna was forced to grow up and be vongola decimo. takeshi sees his dad again. kyōya gets namimori back as he loved it. ryōhei gets another shot to keep his sister out of the mafia (i'd imagine tyl!tsuna wouldn't feel right marrying kyōko considering his mental age?) or, at least, not in the crossfire if she has to be informed. gokudera gets to protect tsuna this time. etc etc.

verde gets called by tsuna, gets told to "hurry up with the box weapons if you don't want the world to end" (or something along those lines) and has mass panicking and planning. maybe arcobaleno meetings??

tldr; tyl!time travel gone wrong, with tsuna & co (guardians + maybe reborn, maybe not even all of his guardians) getting their heads shot back into their 14/15/16 year old bodies. trauma, probably, and a mass panic of getting to byakuran. tsuna learning how to not be a mafia boss and the kid he never got to be, still ruthless, but kind.

double tldr: time travel fix-it but worse somehow

[ethereal-kloud]

izuku is born with a mixture of his father & mother's quirk: fire manipulation (or, at least that's what he calls it). it comes a bit late— he's already older than four when it comes in (and it wasn't the best situation, either; it was winter, and the heater was turned on, and, carelessly, a towel dropped on it and started a fire.)

at first, it's all normal— kacchan's his friend again, telling him he'll be the best sidekick ("i wanna be my own hero, though," he protests, sometimes), but the teachers still tell kacchan he's the best and izuku has to watch helplessly as his best friend turns into— something distinctly not kind.

he watches as he bullies someone younger than them, when they're six, and he just can't watch (he wants to be a hero) and so he jumps in front and sees kacchan's face contort into a sneer and pure anger and he doesn't stop even when he recognizes that it's izuku who's in front of him, and as the sparks of his strong, powerful, heroic, explosion quirk comes closer—

they stop.

sure, they're still crackling, but the flares coming up from them just. don't move. they're floating in that way izuku distantly recognizes as the way his mom's Pull quirk does with his all might toys.

and in that moment, kacchan can't hurt them. can't burn and make scars if a crucial part of his own quirk won't act against them 'cause izuku won't let it.

and they just... drift apart after that. kacchan—katsuki, whatever he should call him after defying him like that—glares and snarls but he knows that izuku's control over his quirk is amazing because he tests the very limits, just like he did with his quirk when he'd first got it.

when they have to see each other out of school (their moms are friends, after all) he's rude, but the kind of rude izuku's been familiar with his whole life. sometimes he gets locked into rooms, and get scrapes, but someone who defied bakugou katsuki and lived is not someone you use your quirk on. especially after listening to him mutter about all their quirks' weaknesses and knowing that he has a lighter in his pocket at all times.

and maybe, he becomes a vigilante, maybe he gets even better with his analyses without a bully blowing them up and dunking them in water and becomes a hero properly, maybe he's a vigilante-turned-hero, maybe he's a proper quirk analyst/counselor for hire, or maybe he just becomes a firefighter who's scarily good at picking apart criminals and quirks and strangely friendly with the local heroes, who knows.

but here, in a world where he isn't beaten down just for existing, midoriya izuku has so many options and possibilities.

[ethereal-kloud]

what if: verde, for some reason (tired of being nagged/bothered, maybe?) actually leaves his lab and visits japan before the representative battle? he did his research before he left, of course, and decides to visit the quiet town of namimori, one of the couple of places in japan under vongola’s protection, yet not very mafia connected (so he thinks, with kyōya being related to fon, tsuyoshi probably a former assassin/hitman, iemitsu literally living there for a couple weeks at a time, + so many potential flame actives)

and tsuna’s six or seven, and verde pauses. because. because that right there is a baby sky, but for some reason, his flames are writhing under—something. but verde knows sky attraction/charisma, even as muted and warped as that, and is not horrified, but slightly disturbed on whoever did that to him but didn’t even have the decency to leave a little wiggle room so he didn’t trip over nothing and everything.

and his mother. well.

he just told her that he was taking her son (for experiments, totally) and she just beamed at him and said “tsu-kun’s so responsible for taking care of verde-kun!” and basically pushed her bewildered son out the door with him. which—great, he doesn’t have to deal with the morals of a caring parents but also what. he’s left wondering if she’s not really civilian with how oblivious she is. she puts a shame to their shared flame type, even if she isn’t active.

and so he takes the stuttering and tripping and sealed sky to a controlled lab he has hidden away, and plots how to break the seal. hopefully not too damaging—it’d be a waste.

honestly, in the beginning, verde doesn’t really care for the brat other than making sure he doesn’t touch his experiments and making him stay healthy for his tests. sealing isn’t a very common thing, and definitely not on skies, so it’s an interesting research opportunity.

but tsuna’s tsuna, and he worms his way into being helpful, learns how to stop tripping and making a mess, wants to help the baby-not-baby who, even if he didn’t mean to, took him away from a town that didn’t want him. so, even when verde finds out a month and a half later that he’s basically kidnapped sawada iemitsu’s son, he still keeps him. 1, he’s hasn’t broken the seal yet and is actually making some headway and 2. he’s now like the annoying helpful little brother that verde never thought about wanting but would murder for him anyway

tsuna’s guardians would end up different, ‘cause if he’s verde’s ward, all of his subsequent elements have got to be at least a quarter of how smart he is, and half as smart as tsuna is without the seal blocking his every attempt. maybe hayato for storm, shōichi for sun, spanner for rain, verde for lightning (maybe even haru; she’s smart just obsessive), maybe kyōya for cloud if he can deal with the crowding, and mist would be. someone.

reborn comes to namimori, finds out all the “information” that iemitsu got from his wife was given to her by someone else, tracks him down to a lab, and then realizes his student has basically been adopted in every way but legally by verde.

not that he’s going to tell them; even though he’s good friends with vongola nono, he’s still an arcobaleno (no matter how many of his achievements are pushed under for being that) and he follows the arcobaleno code. besides, he sleep-repaired his spare gun that he wanted to get replaced; there’s no way he’s giving that up, but he’s never failed a job (and that means no going back on the contract) so he does tutor him. in mafia things verde hasn’t taught him because he just makes scientific advancements instead of meeting and greeting and knowing gossip.

if he becomes vongola decimo, though, that’s a whole different thing. verde honestly probably doesn’t want to be a vongola flame guardian/teacher/caretaker of vongola, who basically say his flame types are only good for taking damage and distracting the enemy’s attention.

maybe tsuna would, and just turn vongola into a vigilante/scientific research ‘mafia’ group. just have a bunch of amazing geniuses breaking the ‘known facts of flame users’ thing, who are also strong enough to back themselves up.

[ethereal-kloud]

what if tsuna meets haru earlier?

at about 4 years old, he’s still shy and hasn’t been able to make any friends, and nana kind of, maybe, left him at a park near where the miura’s lived.

now, haru’s also around 4, but still has that easily obsessed and easily misunderstanding situations mindset and so just isn’t very well-liked because she’s strange and weird. enter tsuna, who sees some six-year-olds bullying a smaller, dark-brown-haired girl who’s trying n to cry.

he’s obviously terrified, but he’s still tsuna, and this version has yet to know the betrayal of having his flames sealed, has yet to face bullying for reasons he just can’t understand. so he stops them. maybe with his intuition (he probably was born with it, looking so much like giotto even with his blood) and they become friends.

and haru, who has been made fun of by crueler and older kids, latches onto tsuna, who’s a kind sky and just a good person. her dormant lightning flames stir just a bit from being near, and as they grow older and closer, they become latent and only need a small push to become active.

and, coincidentally, because tsuna makes that one close friend, because iemitsu never calls before visiting (or like a day before where nana rushes to make food and get out the alcohol and make sure curious little tsuna doesn’t touch it), tsuna is very conveniently away for a week-long sleepover at the miura household that week, following along with haru’s newfound obsession and skill with sewing.

they do meet, of course, for a small dinner, but the miura’s are there and haru scares away the dog that would have launched tsuna straight into being active, so timoteo never has a chance to seal him.

their visit ends uneventfully, iemitsu mostly drunk and wailing that his “tuna-fish doesn’t love him” and the vongola nono assuring himself iemitsu’s little civilian family is safe and his son is even smarter than average kids (in the civilian sense)

haru grows to be tsuna’s backbone, saying “no” for him when the others at their prestigious school wants him to “tutor” them but the same cruelty she’s oh so familiar with in their eyes. but tsuna can say no here, because he was never put down and some people are idiots who just can’t get haru.

when reborn gets there, well. he learns that, yes, technically, the son of the young lion of vongola is a civilian with a civilian friend, they’re both so close to being active it’s not even funny. actually, the boy is active, with the bare minimum amount of control to make it seem like he’s not.

(he tested this by shooting a dying will bullet at his strange friend, for insisting that he’s precious and should be protected, when the boy’s forehead burst into flames and pushed her out of the way.)

at least he won’t be bored. (or be forced to use that lightning bovino brat that keeps following him somehow) how to find other elements that will mesh well with that kind of lightning, though…

[ethereal-kloud]

what if: iemitsu, for whatever reason, brought tsuna and nana along with him to italy?

tsuna’s maybe 6, gets lost because his parents are being lovey-dovey, and promptly sobs because this isn’t anywhere he recognizes and he doesn’t have toys and he’s hungry.

the vongola mansion is giant, though, so he’s still inside its territory, just outside in a spare garden or something.

and coincidentally, xanxus is out there. scowling, probably out of bad meeting with timoteo, and suddenly he, who’s around 16, is faced with a teary six-year-old.

and no matter what the old man says, he was a street kid and manners really didn’t matter all that much, and kids either had someone who cared enough to make sure they survived, or were left out for dead.

which is why he has the absolutely great idea to bring him to the varia, who squalo (who’s like 14) beat the varia boss and decided he didn’t want it so he gave it to him. for some reason. at least he can threaten them to deal with the child

(note: he doesn't realize it's iemitsu's kid because he doesn't/didn't think he would be so stupid to bring his family into vongola + he looks like mini primo but he probably hasn't seen the pictures to compare closely)

but see, tsuna is six and the only person he kind of knows is the teen-with-feathers so even if he yells, he's not leaving.

iemitsu somehow, later, realizes nobody knows where his kid is, and panics, only to come across this:

tsuna, napping or playing on xanxus with him twitching but not throwing stuff at him, with squalo (probably, maybe lussuria) in the background, snickering at him or something

he throws a fit, but ultimately can't do anything because tsuna really does not want to leave the den of highly capable assassins