#if. say. plasma got their claws in alto first. they'd be just as dedicated to That cause instead yknow?

[claitea]

an au i've been messing with for quite a while now :) alto as a plasma leader + post-plasma! originally for a little swap au where n would have been a ranger (tbh its not developed at all, it was just an excuse to think about ranger n lmao), though with @jaredthebc we also made a whole thing with his oc jay hehe

ALRIGHT SO TRYING TO KEEP IT SHORT. we call this the replacement leader au. when ghetsis caught wind of a harmonia child being abandoned in the woods, he planned to get him for his plans as normal. however, he accidentally takes a 5 year old alto instead. when he realizes his mistake and finds the real n, he can't just toss out alto since he'd already introduced her to the rest of team plasma as the future queen. he keeps them around to keep up appearances, but also as a backup in case anything goes awry with n. alto's goal as plasma's leader is to make unova more like their homeregion fiore as opposed to complete liberation

they dont get to be they/them yet by the way. sorry. she/her and gender dysphoria be upon ye, alto. they get called A, or Lady A, but since reading just the letter A in text was hard, we also call them Alt. they never get called that in-universe, its literally just for us HJDHDHFH

so that n is assured that he is the true king, he's never made aware of alt's existence, but alt admires him greatly and works to support him from the shadows. when jay is discovered by ghetsis, since he can also talk to pokemon having been to the mystery dungeon universe, alt is once again pushed down the royal procession. at this point, they're so used to being looked over they fully accept this without question and pledge as much loyalty to jay as they do to n.

we liked the thing the manga did where in literally just one scene and never again, n's necklace is used as a phone. so ghetsis gives all three their necklaces to keep tabs on them all. jay and alt accidentally end up calling each other on them, initially unaware exactly Who they're calling. they keep this up for a while, since both are lonely as plasma's backup leaders who arent nearly as important as n yet. when they find out, alt is horrified thinking they've broken so many rules treating their superior so informally, but jay tells them he wants them to stick around. they end up sneaking off to each others rooms, and since they're so desperate for company they try a romantic relationship. its not exactly... the best?? they genuinely love each other but alt is constantly worried about the fact this is totally not allowed, jay worries alt is just "following orders" by being with him. they feel that all they have is each other though

in bw1 n loses and leaves unova as normal, so for bw2, ghetsis puts jay in charge with alt as his right hand. jared's oc Amity replaces the usual protag. the game proceeds basically as normal, up until the giant chasm, where ghetsis attempts to glaciate amity and n returns to save her. knowing kyurem did this only because it was being controlled, jay defends it, as do n and amity. alt, scared out of their mind having just seen ghetsis reveal his true colors, as well as watching jay and n, the only people left they could trust, defend a pokemon that almost killed a kid, alt runs away.

jay and n search for them for a month, and find them back in the ruins of the old plasma castle, injured from an ursaring attack they suffered on the run. they realize how harsh they'd been at the chasm and finally try to make up with both of them. it takes a while because they all have their own issues to sort out but jay and alt do get back together with a lot more healthy framing of that relationship :) n is also there bc these ocs were already n kissers. we had to alright. its in our nature

alt never actually interacted with many pokemon in their time with plasma so their main experiences are The Kyurem Thing and The Ursaring Thing so they develop a fear of pokemon for a while. the shiny smoliv in their second ref is their emotional support helping them get used to pokemon again. their name is Olive because alt still sucks at names, they were a rescue jay got from the plasma safehouse, and because of an inside joke they know wood hammer even though smoliv cant learn that