#and it's like. it's canon that those are genetic mutations. you don't Cure those

[shortfeather]

For the hermnautica AU, can you tell me more about either Joe or Etho (they're my favs :)) or h-2 and the "threat within themselves" because that is intriguing me. This AU sounds super cool! Please infodump whatever to me :D.

Joe in this AU is a teacher! He usually teaches first-year college courses or community college classes, and he's the "everyone's favorite professor" sort of teacher because of his laid-back attitude and infectious passion for whatever he's teaching. He's on the Hermatrix Convoy because he knows Cleo, the first mate of H-3, and when he told them he had to move to another star system for his new job, she got him a discounted ticket on the Convoy.

(putting the rest beneath a cut because this got Long)

His species is Sol ancestry, Ionian-born, which is a long-winded way of saying he's a human from the moon Io in our solar system.

In this AU, there's one truly sentient species per star system, though not every star system is inhabited, and not every sentient species has expanded to space yet. When sentient species do expand to space, they tend to migrate across the rest of the planets and moons in their star system before going for interstellar travel, and although terraforming exists and is used to make new planets and moons habitable for the species in question, it can't perfectly recreate the conditions of their home planet. So after a few generations, you start seeing minor genetic differences based on what celestial body you grew up on!

That's why it's not enough to say Joe's human; all that tells someone is that his ancestors came from the Sol star system.

(Also, making him Ionian because that's also a music term... exactly my kind of easter egg fact for AUs.)

Anyways, Joe in the story is very much the glue that keeps the survivors of H-2 from mental collapse. While survival in the literal arctic is different than a typical classroom, he finds himself able to use a lot of class-control/attention techniques to keep some of the bigger personalities (Gem, Cub, Grian) from completely snapping. Ren, who was captain of H-2 and is now in charge, is very grateful for his assistance in keeping the group from turning on each other. He keeps things light, and does stuff like decorating the kitchen of the ship, which maybe isn't helpful for immediate survival but does distract everyone a bit on the worst nights.

When the survivors get into Subnautica's actual lore and discover the Architects (the aliens who previously inhabited this planet and have since mysteriously vanished, leaving only their buildings and computers behind), Joe is also integral to understanding their work!

He's not the only one working on the Architect stuff, though. Xisuma is a cybersecurity expert and does most of the decoding/translating. Impulse is a chemical engineer and does most of the science-y stuff that builds off of the Architect's data. In between that, there's Joe, who has taught and worked with dozens of species for over a decade, which allows him to look at the bizarre organizational skills and writing style of the Architects and turn it into something a little more Galactic-standard for Impulse to use.

And for the H-2 and the "threat within ourselves," that's also Subnautica lore.

When you crash on 4546-B in the game, one of the first things it tells you is that there is an abnormally high bacteria count in the water. This is Kharaa, a highly infectious, 100% lethal disease that can infect nearly any macro-organism in the known universe. The Architects brought Kharaa to this planet to study it in a controlled environment, trying to cure it as it ravaged their population back home. When it was accidentally released from a lab into the oceans, they set up a planet-wide quarantine to ensure it couldn't spread any further, and fled, because Kharaa is no joke.

(Heads up, the rest of this post talks about the ways Kharaa infects you. It can get pretty intense. If you're sensitive to the topics of infections, mutation/mild body horror, and mental degradation, maybe skip the rest of this.)

Kharaa first manifests as typical illness symptoms, almost like a nasty flu. After that, it goes dormant for a while as it spreads and develops within your body. It can take hours to weeks to fully develop, depending on how lucky you are, and it can only be slowed, not stopped (unless a cure is discovered.) After it develops to a full infection, it starts to express symptoms again.

When Kharaa moves on from infecting you to actually killing you, it starts by mutating your genetic code. This both causes glowing green spots to appear on your body as the Kharaa inserts its own code into yours, and can also cause dormant genes to suddenly wake up and change your appearance or how your body works. Those who were able to report their experience of this stage with any degree of coherence have unilaterally described it as agonizing and said that their body doesn't feel like their own anymore. Eventually, their organs failed from extreme mutation, and the patients died.

It doesn't stop there. Kharaa, like rabies, can also infect the brain directly. This causes severe mental degradation, most commonly exhibited as severe aggression, but paranoia, catatonia, extreme mood swings, and self-isolating behaviors have also been reported.

Again, these symptoms can be slowed with extreme medical intervention, but not cured, not yet.

Like most not-well-understood infections, it sometimes goes out of order, especially with as diverse a group of species as the Hermatrix Convoy survivors. Some of them never show physical mutations beyond the green spots, which are relatively painless. Some of them mentally degrade long before they show any physical changes at all. The H-2 survivors have much stronger mental symptoms than physical, whereas the H-3 survivors, who almost never go into the ocean, only manifest mild physical and psychological symptoms.

It makes it tougher, not knowing exactly how someone will fall ill, only that they're guaranteed to die unless a miracle comes.

The only saving grace is that the Architects say they were close. Across every facility the survivors discover, the last few entries all say the same thing: "We are on the cusp of discovery. We know Kharaa's weakness. We know the cure is on this planet."

Only one facility has an entry after that.

"Evacuation is our only option. This planet is condemned."

[kurokrisps]

My Hero Academia is the far or alternate future of X-Men

My personal theory

Short disclaimer: I'd like to state this theory might have a lot of holes seeing as I'm more a follower of the films and what I've researched online than being an avid comic reader (I just don't know where to start with them but I'll get on some soon). Also I've never made a theory post before so this'll be kinda sloppy.

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Horikoshi

Horikoshi is known to be a Marvel fan. It's present in some of his characters' design motifs and their names. Quirks aren't just "superpowers" they usually have a scientific explanation (fake or no, its scientific) for mutations that vary in genetics or mental abilities (Ex: Ashido isnt just pink for funsies her skin is like that as a result of her body mutating to adjust to the toxins she releases). Much like how powers work in X-Men. Bringing me to the next theory.

The beginning of Quirks and metahuman society

It's established that this has gone on for maybe hundreds or so years. The theory is that it likely started somewhere in the 2010s and the era we see atm is in the 4th generation, somehere in 2300. (That's a hole considering X-Men has established mutations were likely before even the force was established and so on but hear me out).

I think back to the movie X-Men (2000), when there was a cure being given out for mutants to rid them of their mutations. There was a whole line of otherwise regular looking people, some homeless and some not, probably with nonvisible mutations. Indicating mutant population is more prevalent in society than we thought.

Discrimination in Metahumans and human society

Discrimination is present everywhere - yes, even amongst the metahuman. Quirkless discrimination and human discrimination is a common theme in both the X-Men and MHA franchise. But I feel a lot of people overlook that as long as your deemed "less powerful", people will pick on you either way.

In X-Men there are Mutant Supremacists, mutants that think some mutants are better than others and despise humans completely. Back to the point with the X-Men movies, more specifically X-Men: First Class. I don't have enough evidence to put Magneto up here but I do have the example of Astrid Bloom and likely Sebastian Shaw (I mean, he was a N*zi so...)

Even in a world where the parties both "peacefully" coexist, there's bound to be infighting on who's the most powerful. AFO or ReDestro might be the closest example to a Quirk or Mutant Supremacist; seeing certain people below them and wanting a society in which the ones with absolute power rule and those that crush the weak determines your status. Bakugou is a tamer version of this, personal or current growth aside, he was very adamant on establishing he was the best back in junior high and the only person he looked to surpass was All Might, who he considered not just super cool but super powerful.

Selling a Hero IRL

Ok hold out for me here cus this is half of where my theory began to grow.

(Art credit to Keiid Aka Mya on Twitter)

Check the poster in Shinsou's room. That isn't just some cool girl the artist made for his room, Karma is an actual character in Marvel canon (this is probably obvious for y'all who actually read comics 😅). But you might be thinking, "Ok cool but that's just crossover fanart ain't it?" Yes but actually no.

It's shown in a translation that Sero is a fan of an American Hero. It's Spider-Man, let's not beat around the bush, his tape power is influenced from his webslinging abilities as well. Some might think the heroes of the Marvel universe are fiction in their universe and maybe so, but I can counter this.

In the beginning of the manga, Volume 1 Chapter 1, silhouettes are shown of mostly Marvel heroes, one of them being Wolverine from... oh take a guess! The lines on the panel was also "fiction became reality."

In Logan, Laura points out that "Wolverine" had saved many people in the comics, that she has possession of. He tells her that some of that was real but a lot was also overexaggerated for media. Meaning while they and their adventures were real, their images were also used as a source of entertainment for nonmutants. It's the same as celebrities appearing on TV and in commercials with their signature looks. They're a brand. Heroes in MHA do the same, with merchandising and otherwise. At least those non-underground.

Conclusion

I don't really know how to make a conclusion, since these are all a bunch of my half-baked theories stitched together. Like I said, comics probably counter this a ton. But it's not like I don't read comics at ALL, at this point with how much I've come across, some comics nowadays have proven to be officialized fanfiction. Anything goes as long as you can write or don't try to contradict the old rules I guess.

Plus there are so many universes for futures I can't even count on my fingers, so My Hero might as well be one of them.