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Carmine and Kieran Roleswap AU: Teal Mask Edition

Sweet Arceus do I have a long AU for ya, because I am Very Normal about the Kitakami siblings and definitely don't go out of my way to find new ways to mess with their heads. Long AU summary under the cut! Beware all ye who enter here, for there are Ogres afoot.

So the most important thing to understand before we start is that Carmine and Kieran still retain aspects of their normal personalities. A 1:1 swap would be kinda boring (specifically, boring for me). However, their life experiences have changed here and that does give us some new juicy tidbits to explore.

Sketches provided by @funakounasoul... except for the Ogerpon sketch. I made that.

Kieran is the older sibling in this scenario. He's still shorter than his sister, but he's now older than the player character and probably has some devilish good looks. He's generally goodnatured, and being the older sibling and having to look out for a younger sister has balanced his personality a little bit. He's more mentally stable and mature than his standard self. He still has a pretty huge fondness for the ogre in the old legend, admiring its independence and strength. The major change to his personality here is that he's not as insanely shy, since he hasn't had a big scary savage sister to hide behind all his life.

Younger sister Carmine is shy of strangers and still wary of outsiders. Her posture visually in the Teal Mask is probably kind of stooped, like she's trying to hide how crazy tall she is. She has a bratty, slightly spoiled attitude in this scenario, because big brother Kieran is always hovering nearby to keep her out of trouble. She appears to be the player character's age or maybe a touch younger. Despite the initial shyness though, she's all aggression when she feels she or her family or really any of Kitakami as she sees it is threatened. She still dismisses Kieran's ogre obsession, but chalks it up to boys liking scary things. (You know, cuz girls never go for that kinda thing </massive sarcasm>)

The PC would meet them both for the first time in Mossui and Kieran is welcoming while Carmine glowers at you from somewhere behind him. Kieran's all about helping your classmate get safely to the community center and probably runs off to help, or perhaps to get the caretaker. Maybe you battle Carmine then because she's definitely not enjoying having these tourists in her fucking town. Whatever the scenario, Kieran and the caretaker get the rest of the Random Paldean Students safely to the community center and you get settled in.

Now, for a while, things don't change much in this scenario, except for Kieran not being super emotionally unstable. The next day, you're being introduced to the Blueberry kids properly and Kieran immediately suggests you and he pair up. Carmine isn't thrilled but as he points out, it's not like they can pair up together based on Briar's directions to make interschool pairs. She sulks off to find a Paldean student to deal with. Your character and Kieran have a friendly battle and he admires your skills. You go find the first two signboards and follow him up to the Dreaded Den more or less the same way as in Teal Mask. Then he invites you to the Festival of Masks and you go back to the family home. Carmine is not overly pleased to see you still hanging around, but she's unbending a little bit since you and Kieran obviously get on so well. They only find the two masks in the shed, Kieran tries to offer you his ogre mask, Carmine stops him, you get to the festival and do some balloon popping and maybe even beat Carmine's score.

It's Ogerpon's appearance that changes the story dramatically. At first, you are the only one that sees her, but then Kieran comes looking for you after pacifying Carmine. Ogerpon spooks, drops her mask, and you both have a moment of shock as you realize this is not a child, this is the damn ogre. Then Ogerpon bolts, leaving you with the Teal Mask. Kieran is stunned -- the ogre was so smol! And seemed so nonaggressive! And holy shit this mask is beautiful, except there's a chip in the big crystal! He's excited as hell to have one of his childhood dreams materialize before him. He wants to go after Ogerpon, but Carmine turns up at that moment. She has deeply internalized the ancient Kitakami legend of the Loyal Three, and when Kieran excitedly tells her you just saw the ogre, she insists it can't have been, because you and he are both not fucking dead. She and Kieran argue for a minute, long enough that once it's over, Kieran has to reluctantly admit you'll never catch up to the ogre in the dark. He tells you to hold onto the mask and you two can go ask his grandpa about it in the morning. You do, and it's Kieran who is with you when you hear the story of Ogerpon. Carmine appears at one point and is shooed off by Kieran, but overhears the majority of the story herself. Unlike Kieran, she can't believe it -- the heroic Loyal Three, actually villains?? Impossible! She realizes that if Kieran believes this story, he's likely to go chasing the ogre again, and probably get himself killed, a prospect that chills her to the bone. She ambushes you both as you leave the family home and demands that Kieran (and just Kieran, she doesn't care what YOU do) not go chasing monsters, making no effort to pretend she didn't overhear the whole damn thing. Kieran tries to correct her, but she insists you both go have a look at the final signboard, the one that reminds everyone that the ogre murders anyone it comes across without a mask on. You go, but discuss with Kieran how the story doesn't make any sense compared to the ogre you both saw and the story Kieran's grandpa told you. You go back mutually determined to get Ogerpon's mask back to her after gramps fixes it.

You go off to the community center and Kieran goes home. Something he says at home will alert Carmine to your resolve, and that kicks off the next event. Carmine demands you meet her at Loyalty Plaza, where she makes an impassioned plea to her brother not to be fooled into getting himself murderated. He tries to explain that she's still got the wrong impression and she blows up on him, refusing to listen to reason (he almost certainly points out that Gramps has no reason to lie to his own grandkids, for example). Truth is, she's afraid, afraid for his life, and that's making her act irrationally.

And then a thought occurs to her, a thought that marks a huge turning point in this scenario. It's you. You are making her brother act this way. You are the reason he's doing these insane things. She accuses you directly of manipulating her family. Kieran protests, but she's convinced.

Now, in canon, I am convinced that the venom in Kieran's thoughts is what somehow channeled Pecharunt's energy (or some variant thereof) into the Lousy Three's grave and brought them back to life. In this scenario, imagine the same, only it's the poison of fear which is rapidly spreading through Carmine. Her fear is being expressed as anger, but it's still fear, and it's consuming her rapidly. Before either sibling can argue further, the grave splits open, and the Three emerge. No one knows quite what is happening, so no one can really react effectively as they take off to Kitakami Hall. It's only as they're already receding into the distance that Carmine realizes they must be the Three.

You and the siblings rush to the Hall to hear the news of the Three's arrival and retrieving of the other masks before going up the mountain. Kieran starts to rush after them, but suddenly Carmine blocks the way. She is going to save him from himself if it's the last thing she does. You battle her and defeat her, and the idea that you are the cause of all this etches itself that much deeper. She has no choice but to step aside, but you can feel her furious eyes on your back as you run to save Ogerpon.

Poor little ogre is getting the shit kicked out of her and you save her, driving off the Three. She is nervous around Kieran because he smells like a local and therefore Dangerous, but while a little hurt, he is not crushed by this. You take her back to the town (she refuses to enter of course) and consult with Kieran's grandpa. He promises to fix the Teal Mask for Ogerpon if you and Kieran go get a crystal from the Crystal Pool to replace the chipped one, and suggests you and Kieran go pound the shit out of the Three to get Ogerpon's other masks back. Carmine is sulking at home and overhears the conversation. You and Kieran go to the Pool with Ogerpon shadowing you, but Carmine blocks your way at the top, angry at Kieran too now for bringing an outsider to this sacred place. The standoff is broken by Briar also appearing at the summit, distracting Carmine. Kieran slips past her and you stop her from following with a battle. Ogerpon stays near you, and her presence only serves to enrage Carmine more. Kieran retrieves a crystal cluster during the battle and you both bolt back down the mountain to give it to Gramps, leaving Carmine fuming. He begins to work on the mask and you turn your attention to finding the Three.

You find the Three with Kieran's help and return the shit kicking they gave Ogerpon threefold, retrieving her masks. Ogerpon becomes more comfortable around Kieran as you go. You return to the town only to discover Carmine stole the Teal Mask after Gramps fixed it and left Kieran a message telling him to come to the Dreaded Den. Gramps notes that she spoke with him about the story of Ogerpon before she left and seems to be disturbed by how the ogre has acted since the whole mess began -- Kieran guesses her good sense is starting to win out over her fear. You go back to the Den with Kieran and Ogerpon and find Carmine there. Kieran confronts her, finally convincing her that the story of the Loyal Three was indeed wrong, and she's been wrong about Ogerpon the whole time (probably aided by Ogerpon with her sweet lil face staring like a sad puppy at her).

Carmine finally accepts the truth of the matter, and apologizes to him and Ogerpon.

But there's one thing she hasn't let go of. She hasn't forgiven you. And Kieran doesn't realize that she's still hung up on that part because, while he's a lot more emotionally stable in this scenario, he's still pretty oblivious to subtle emotional cues from other people. When Carmine walks away from the Den, it's with a venom-filled look in your direction. Insert Heart's If Looks Could Kill here.

Inevitably, Ogerpon wants you as her human, because you're the damn hero. This version of Kieran is disappointed, but not shattered by this. He's spent a lot of time over the last couple days with you and the little cutie, and he's had time to get used to the idea. It's Ogerpon's decision where she wants to go, and he lets go of the long cherished dream with regret, but nothing worse. He does ask to have a battle with you and her in the morning, after which Briar calls to tell you to get your asses to the community center to finish the actual school trip thingy you'd probably forgotten all about. Kieran also tells you that Carmine has holed up in her room and won't talk to anyone.

You know more or less how this ends, with Briar yoinking the Kitakami sibs back to Unova to prepare for some globetrotting and the antagonistic sibling swearing to get stronger so they can kick your ass. In this case it's Carmine, and boy does she hate you right now. In the end, Kieran came to no harm, and Ogerpon was not a monster, but it doesn't really matter, because rationality went out the window for her where you're concerned a while ago. She's going to get stronger, and she's going to hand you your ass for humiliating her so often, and she's got a great idea for making that happen...

#pokemon #scarlet violet #gen 9 #teal mask dlc #musings #alternate universe #carmine #kieran #ogerpon #fan art #sketch #pokemon carmine #pokemon kieran #okay now for the funny blooper reel tags #I am so tempted to dub this Kieran “Stoner Kieran”#He really has that vibe #Carmine has graduated to Full Unhinged status #The moral of this story is don't be a younger sibling if you can help it #Also starring Juliana's back

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