#mad scientist Iggy AU

[definitely-not-a-wasp]

All of Iggy's power-boosts become much more acceptable if you decide that they're not actually power boosts, but instead Iggy "canonical genius who fucks with dangerous things he definitely shouldn't touch" Griffiths taking a page out of Jeb's book and doing horribly unethical science through the first three books.

He only started acting upset about being blind after leaving their home, because it was at that point that being blind became a liability in his life. This grows through books 1-3, until the entire flock is kidnapped and conveniently brought back to the School, where sure, Iggy's a prisoner, but suddenly he has access to supplies and research. And then, oh so conveniently, he starts being able to sense color and have limited sight on white backgrounds (see: in bright lighting).

I think Iggy was gathering information from the Institute for Higher Living (mostly what he could glean through "innocent questions") and from his own memories of the School, to try to give himself a boost. In fact, I think it started in SoF, and that's why Iggy had a breakdown over being blind— what he was trying wasn't working, because he didn't have a full laboratory full of resources or all of the puzzle pieces he needed. And he's not about to talk to anyone else about it, because not only would they probably freak the fuck out about him using himself as a test subject, but he also knows that... frankly, they probably wouldn't be able to help him. Nudge is great with tech, Fang is an investigator at their core, Max is an excellent tactician, but when it comes to biology, to chemistry, to anything that strays to the School, he's the person who handles those subjects.

What's that? They're breaking back into the School? Iggy is 10/10 on board.

What's that? They're getting kidnapped by the School and Angel betrayed them? Not great, but he's been during disadvantages into advantages for most of his life. He can do it one more time.

They're breaking into ITEX now? Even fucking better.

Sitting in the dining room of the Martinez house, after ITEX is distroyed, after several sleepless nights of injections and eyedrops and saying it's going to work this time, he can see pinpricks of light at the edge of his vision. By the time he boards the Wendy K, he can see light. Sometimes, when he focuses until his head aches, he can pick up movement against bright backgrounds. Not much, but enough that he can move out of the way of an oncoming attack. And that's all he needs.

Then he picks up a plastic cup and tastes something on the back of his tongue that he can only describe as blue, and tastes bad, and wonders what the fuck else he accidentally caused.

[shadyfiredreamland]

KOOPALINGs!!!! Just for fun,i was so surprise that nintendo didn't give iggy a good doctor outfit so i decided to make my own,originally made for an affected super mario infected AU.

[childofsardior]

What? Iggy's Headcanon from my AU? Here we gooo!

↓↓↓ Read it all below! ↓↓↓

General Info:

Full name: Ignatius Koopa. Iggy was the very first victim of his mother’s realization that she was giving her children long names that could be easily shortened in popular Human's Dimension musicians. Since she already gave Lemmy and Roy longer names, she continued the trend of searching for something that could be compressed into Iggy to mention Iggy Pop. An old Latin name was the only thing she found. By the way, Iggy doesn't mind. He claims that, in reality, Ignatius sounds perfect for a mad scientist, but he's saving his full name for the time he'll be a famous and acclaimed researcher and inventor.

Gender and pronouns: Pronouns are he/him. He claims that "gender is way too complex to be compressed by a single label and even with a one-year-long accurate explanation about how I'm feeling right now could not bring justice to a person's fluidity during the time". If Lemmy asked him to bring a flag for a hypothetical Mushroom Pride, Iggy would probably take the Agender flag with him, even if it's just an "arid and inaccurate simplification and oversimplified approximation of the Koopas and other sentient creatures' complex nature".

Sexuality: He's aro/ace. Again, Iggy's love for accurate explanations will lead him to claim that, of course, one's sexuality is a lot more complex than a single word and the (potentially fluid) result of a mix of innate and cultural factors, educational background, personal experience(s), and even more. But he actually adopted these labels since he found out they are very convenient to quickly describe his lack of attraction - at least, physical and romantic - towards other people, especially if someone is trying to flirt with him and he's like "Oh no". Despite what his siblings think, tho, he would not refuse the idea of a platonic relationship in the (distant) future... if he'll ever find a genius brain that could match his love for science, of course.

Age: He's currently 16 (in calendar years), sharing his age with Roy and Wendy since their eggs were from the same clutch and hatched just a few hours away from each other. He's the one that hatched in the middle, the day after Roy and the day before Wendy. As Royal Koopas mature faster than Humans and such, Iggy could be compared to a 18/19 y.old Human. Just like Ludwig, tho, Iggy has always been even more precocious, being very intelligent and smart since he was a tiny hatchling - but curiously enough he didn't learn how to speak until 1.5 years old, later than all his siblings.

Species: Tarrasquin (also known as "Royal Koopas" or "Dragon-Turtles") - that happens to be a powerful and rare species related both to Koopas and Dragons. The lack of horns at a young age and the number of spikes on the shell may point to the subspecies known as Plains/Field Tarrasquin, while some other details could suggest a "mix" with the Vulcanic bloodline. In addition, all the Koopalings seem to share an innate inclination toward magic and some other unusual details never found before in Tarrasquins, such as tail feathers or natural armors protecting the limbs, along with peculiar tiny gem-like scales scattered around their bodies in different patterns.

Physical appearance: Iggy is a yellow-scaled Tarrasquin with some green accents scattered around his whole body, especially on his head and limbs. On his shoulders and joints, he got some harder, spikier scales. He has long, straight acid-green hair, and blue eyes with the iris detached from the pupils for an unknown mutation. Iggy's Royal Fangs follows a lateral quartet and curved pattern, a slightly rarer variant of the straight quartet one. Some tiny spikes sprouted recently on the top of his tail. He's the tallest among his siblings, and not only thanks to his usual hairstyle - even his green shell is oval-shaped instead of round. He's also very slim, and he looks quite frail for a dragon-turtle. Iggy is actually the most delicate of the family, talking about his resilience and health, and the fact that his body is incapable of digesting meat in the right way doesn't help it.

Personality: Iggy's known as the mad genius of the Royal Family, acting crazy all the time and all. If you meet him in person for the first time, you'll probably agree with the rumors. He often talks by himself, laughs crazily even during dangerous situations, and will always tell you what he's honestly thinking without even pondering his words. He's also easily excited and tends to act hyperactively while he's among other people, while sometimes becoming extremely annoying and even childish when he's hanging out with his siblings. But Iggy's crazed facade is just one side of the coin of his whole personality. He mostly adopts (unconsciously) his extremely mad behavior when he finds himself in new social situations, or between his whole bunch of siblings as a sort of coping mechanism to fight an overwhelming social anxiety. In his comfort zone - usually shared with Lemmy - he'll show a more tranquil and nerdy side, full of curiosity and random facts about whatever he's researching this month. He's also extremely clever and intelligent, mostly in a scientific and inventive way - always thinking about his next projects and mechanical inventions - but somehow a bit naive and usually not very wise. At the same time, he can't really understand most of the things that do not fall into his interests - he can't understand sports, he can't understand politics, he can't understand why Wendy likes so much spending hours at SPAs receiving massages from strangers?? - and nobody can really insult or joke with him, Iggy just won't acknowledge why you're trying to offend him, and will just laugh in response. On the other hand, he actually likes to joke by himself or about his rivals, and even insult his opponents in his own way, leading his siblings to believe he just pretends to not understand how irony works. Most of the time, you will find Iggy content about his next great idea, or way too busy working on his next super-duper-cool machine to worry about life at all, but from time to time even the most clever of the family gets blue. Sometimes he just feels lonely, especially during these days in which he suddenly finds it hard to communicate with others - and he will probably spend them working alone in his labs, talking to himself or even in a deep, thinking silence. He also strongly dislikes being touched without warning, an exception made only for Lemmy, and some days he will just... need a pause from social overstimulation. All of this usually leads to Iggy being one of the most reclusive brothers in the group. In these cases, he prefers to spend time with the weirdest insects in his terrariums or with his Chain Chomp pet instead of being around people. Last but not least, Iggy can usually manage his stress and anxiety when it's about people - he will just go somewhere more comfortable and quiet, be that his room or a lonely tower - but something that really breaks him down is losing or breaking his eyeglasses. It's probably one of the only times you can see him really panic or even cry in fear with wet eyes if that happens during a fight or at a bad moment in general.

Hobbies and passions: Iggy's passions are just a few, but he's extremely dedicated (and hyperfixed) about them. Mechanical arts, absurd weaponry and machines, and futuristic inventions are the first things he's usually focused on, but he loves doing his own research about uncommon flora and faunas, cataloging new animals and plants in his book and PCs. He even "collects" some of them in terrariums and pots, occasionally experimenting with some of his bugs' poison or some weird plant's leaves and lymph. He's also very into videogames since he could put his hands on one, and he's currently the second-best hardcore player of the whole house, just after Ludwig - but recently, Iggy's slowly overcoming him. It's not rare for the two "house geniuses" to compete or even resolve a conflict with a serious match of "Super Smash Siblings", and Iggy is the first one his siblings will ask for help to complete a hard level - since nobody wants to ask Ludwig for help unless it's the only solution left. Aside from video gaming only, Iggy's quite into programming, modding and even hacking. He usually assembles his own and his siblings' PCs and will crack all the games Larry wants in his free time, and while he's not programming some new AI for his latest robotic experiment, he will also spend some decent time on obscure science-related sub-Red.dot, as well on specific sites such as digibutter.nerr, talking with other nerds all around the world exchanging info and nerdy hacks.

Relationships:

With his siblings: Iggy can prove to be a very annoying company, and this is why not all of his sibs like to hang out with him, especially among the older. His younger brothers, instead, are often looking for him for help, to request him some new inventions or hack for their Swiitch or even to ask him to get some new movies and videogames in not-so-legal-ways. His very best pal is Lemmy and they often spend lots and lots of time together, but Iggy has a good relationship with Junior, Larry and Morton, too.

Now, for each relationship with the siblings:

Ludwig: They are rivals, always contending for the title of the real "family genius". But while Iggy just casually claims to be clever and able to do some cool stuff, Ludwig is extremely convinced of his own words and will get quite jealous when Iggy surpasses him - so it's more a very serious rivalry only from Ludwig's POV, while Iggy would be cool about the statement "there are two big-brained Koopas in this house" (three, if you count Wendy in it, but she doesn't have time for this childish type of squabbles). But even if Ludwig doesn't want to admit it, Iggy was the one who inspired him to discover some interest in projecting blueprints for his own war machines and such, and they do work together from time to time when the necessity asks for both points of view. Iggy is also the only one in the family that calls his blue-shelled brother"Luddy", and Ludwig hates it.

Lemmy:  Saying that Iggy and Lemmy are best friends would be reductive. They are basically twin-coded (even if Lemmy is a year and half older than Iggy) and probably the two form the strongest bond inside the whole bunch of Royal Koopa siblings. Since they were hatchlings they spent most of their time together. As kids they played together all day, they started to prank others together, they went on "adventures" together... they even tried out various dye colors for their hair together, always trying to match, and until puberty, they were both short enough to be easily mistaken for actual twins at a first glance - except made for Iggy's need for eyeglasses. Then, things started to change a bit. Iggy's growth sprout surprised everyone, and put a big difference between him and Lemmy's absurd shortness; at a certain point, Iggy started to look for his own identity, stopped dyeing his hair and looked for a peculiar hairstyle instead. Their passions differentiated a lot during their teen years, leaving both siblings with less to share. But even if Lemmy was (and secretly still is) afraid of this at first, in the end their bond didn't weaken. They are still both a little weird in their own ways, and they both follow their interests without caring about what others could think of them. They constantly support each other to the point they can finish each other's sentences, and they also confide only to each other. Iggy is actually a good listener to Lemmy's concerns, knowing them so well, and vice-versa. They would end up being the type of siblings that will just go to live together reaching adulthood... if it wasn't for Lemmy's visceral intolerance for the jungle's humidity and Iggy's impossibility of tolerating very cold climates.

Roy: Iggy is a bit afraid of Roy. Being the frail, nerdy one, Iggy has been an easy target for the family's pink-headed bully since he was a kid. If something in Iggy's inventions goes wrong during a mission, Roy will just beat him up without questions out of anger. They do not interact much, and the green-shelled Royal Koopa tries to simply avoid his one-day-older brother when he can.

Wendy: As with Roy, Iggy and Wendy do not interact much, unless forced by the circumstances. Roy and Wendy acting as twins since they were newborns and excluding him on purpose doesn't help. Wendy finds Iggy too frivolous and weird for her liking, and Iggy doesn't understand any of Wendy's hobbies, passions and tastes in general. Wendy would spend all her savings on new clothing and accessories...? "Why would you need them? We are dragon-turtles, not Humans! We do not *need* clothing!" Wendy would spend a whole day at her favorite SPA, letting strangers touch her with massages, wearing weird masks made of food and even taking Mud Baths?? "Is she crazy? Why would anyone like to be touched or even "beaten" on purpose? And wasn't she the super-clean one that hated dirt in all its form??" On the brighter side, Wendy, as opposed to Roy, never bullied Iggy for his behaviors when he was younger.

Morton: The two spend some nice time together, especially since Iggy started his "let's teach grammar and spelling to our big, dark-scaled bro!". Iggy's the only one who is actively trying to help Morton with his speech issue, and every week they are learning new conjunctions, verbs and words - Iggy's ultimate goal is to prove to his other siblings that Morton is not "just a dumb head" as they sometimes claim - even if they are not doing too much progresses by now. Iggy also allows Morton to keep him company during field research and asks for his help from time to time when he needs to assemble big and heavy pieces, counting on Morton's innate strength. Morton is also allowed to assist him during his "I need some silence, please" working moments, as long as he stays silent. Iggy is also trying to teach him how to catalog weird rocks, but Morton just seems to enjoy the pure act of collecting them and putting them in nice places around his room.

Larry: Iggy and Larry have a decent relationship overhaul. Larry LOVES Iggy, especially when he needs something. Iggy feels quite proud of it, feeling a bit like Ludwig in "big, responsible bro mode". They usually spend time playing videogames together or thinking about unofficial mods to apply to the boring Mushroom Kingdom's videogames (for example, modding their own stylized models in the game to be able to play as themselves instead of as a boring plumber in some popular platforms). Aside from that, Larry and Iggy's other interests don't match much, but Iggy is one of the few who can tolerate the younger for the most time.

Bowser Junior: The two have a good relationship, mostly because Junior loves Iggy's crazy "Bahahaha!"-style laugh and most of all his inventions - the Koopa Heir is even approaching the absurd world of (fantasy) mechanic thanks to Iggy, and is trying to learn how to do some projects himself. He always asks Iggy for some new upgrades to his Junior Clown Car, new pirated Swiitch games (when King Bowser refuses to buy him more), new cool toys (such as the Mechakoopas, that Iggy originally created as toys for tiny Larry and Junior) and some times even for super giant mecha to use against the annoying Mario Brothers. Iggy is also surprisingly protective of Bowser Junior when they are on missions together, maybe because the youngest of the family unconsciously remembers Iggy when he was small and frail himself, in need of Lemmy's protection.

* * *

With King Bowser: Iggy has a decent relationship with his adoptive father and King of the Koopas. He *does* see him as a parental figure, even if he doesn't often agree with his plans and can't really understand the way the King reasons. Bowser will frequently ask Iggy to create new anti-Mario weapons, for Iggy's pleasure, but aside from that the two don't interact very much - especially since Iggy is extremely honest with his opinions and Bowser doesn't really like when someone is questioning his Royal Authority. Iggy is also (currently) the only one who likes to jokingly call Bowser "daddy" or "royal daddy", something everyone in the family dislikes a lot.

With his Mother (OC): During the years the siblings used to live with their mother, Iggy was the curious boy of the house. He was always finding new things to show his mother, from funny-shaped leaves to colorful feathers to new books full of dinosaurs. He was a bit reclusive and shy too as a child, and their mother had to step in and protect him from Roy's arrogance or after a fight with Ludwig, a role that Lemmy took themselves when they started to be old enough. Being his mother and Iggy both a bit autistic and filled with social anxiety, too, they could easily understand each other about how stressful it was to stay among strangers and how stressful overstimulation could get.

With Charlie (his Chain Chomp): Iggy has a Chain Chomp pet named "Charlie". It is not the first one he gets, but it's actually the first one he is being responsible for. When he was younger, he had other Chain Chomp pets (he really likes them) but was too childish and irresponsible to properly take care of them, usually leading to the poor magical creatures to run away at some point. In recent years, tho, he's getting better at pet-sitting and caring, and Charlie seems grateful for that: he's probably the happier, more satisfied, polished, well-fed Chain Chomp of the whole Kingdom, and it's extremely loyal to Iggy - and Iggy only. Charlie would bite anyone that gets too close, except for Lemmy whom it now trusts enough to let him ride its back from time to time.

With the Mario Bros., Princess Peach and Mushroom Kingdom: Iggy doesn't really care about conquering, but he is very much interested in studying native creatures and plants of each Kingdom. During peacetime, he would gladly attend some nerd conventions in the Mushroom Kingdom, and he would literally love to meet Professor E.Gadd in person... if the Princess didn't blacklist him from entering the borders as she did with almost all the Royal Family and the Koopa Troop. Now Iggy would need to request a special permit weeks in advance with a lot of boring bureaucracy to fill and a valid motive to stay in the Kingdom for two days maximum, so... he doesn't really like the Princess for this reason. While with the Mario Bros., Iggy would usually be excited to see them - they are, after all, perfect punching balls for his newest battle machines, and his Chain Chomp loves running after them - but he actually dislikes them a lot since they broke his glasses once years ago, during one of their first fights.

Peculiarities & co.

Right-Handed: Iggy is naturally right-handed. Looking at Ludwig's confidence in using both hands for a long time, he tried to train himself to use his left hand as well, for a while... but then he just gave up, finding it too hard and tedious.

Senses: Iggy's biggest weakness, physically speaking, is probably related to his poor sight. Without his special glasses, he is almost blind - he hatched with a severe visual impairment and during his first years of life it just went worse. When he was around 3, his mother was lucky enough to meet a Magikoopa glassmaker who worked with special lenses and Iggy was able to see decently for the first time in his life. When he was later adopted at the castle, the royal eye doctor took him under his supervision. When Iggy was around 10, he started working on his own, personalized pair of eyeglasses, mixing actual glassmaking science with some Magikoopa's cultural knowledge and a tiny bit of adaptive magic to create the "Perfect Iggy's Glasses" (after a lot of trials and fails and prototypes); his last version mixes the best glass from the Sand Kingdom with some strengthen magic from the Red Robes' Magikoopa Order to make them unbreakable... after the various incidents during the years.

Autism: Iggy falls under the autism spectrum, with many traits close to IRL Asperger Syndrome to be more precise - (NOTE: I am sure a "SMB world" equivalent exists with a nicer name, I just don't know one yet-). To be honest, Iggy always suspected it way before being actually diagnosed with it by the Castle's doctors. He's mostly fine with it, accepting his autistic traits as part of his own uniqueness - and, if you ask him, as a part of his genius, too - but sometimes he would gladly take a break from it... especially when overwhelmed by too much noise or when stressed by social interactions. Iggy is also very much convinced that almost everyone in his family has some (sometimes prominent) autistic traits, but the others are not so willing to take tests or talk with doctors to find out, so we will probably never know for sure.

Vegetarian: Iggy is MOSTLY vegetarian. Not by choice, but thanks to his body being very bad at processing meat, for some reasons. "Mostly", because he actually *could* eat very small amounts of meat/fish from time to time without getting sick, but it happens so rarely that he usually even forgets about it. Luckily for him, he loves all types of vegetables, eats lots of fruit and likes eggs A LOT (probably his favorite meal after carrots and turnips); not very fond of dairy products, but he eats them during the week, and will probably only eat vegetables and fruit related cakes. Will also try to get as much protein as he can from legumes, but since Tarrasquins are considered mainly carnivores, he often needs nutritional supplements.

Fire: All the Koopalings have a peculiar "fire"; when fire-breathing, they all will breathe fire of the same color as their shells. Iggy's fire is currently the weakest of the whole family, but it tends to create a lot of green, urticant smoke that makes it hard to see. It's not too useful in actual fights, but can work as a great distraction in need of a quick escape from a bad situation.

Random Facts:

He's a germophobe, and will sanitize his tools, hands and workspace every time he starts and finishes working in his labs.

Iggy is not having a *real* shower in almost 3.5 years. Instead, he perfectly polishes himself from any type of dirt using his own invention, the "Sonic Shower Sound Waver Filth Remover". He also uses a special gel made by himself to treat and keep his hair up every morning.

Iggy doesn't have many friends, especially IRL. But he sometimes finds himself in a group chat or nerdy forums with the same people for enough time, and he'll start addressing them as his "online pals" or "online weirdos".

One of his "online weirdos" is a guy named Francis and obsessed with butterflies. They never saw each other in person nor via webcam, but Francis claims he's a Chameleon and has the hugest collections of comics, manga, action figures, and video games of all his other nerdy pals, probably of his whole dimension, too. 

One day Iggy and Larry decided to create a videogame together with an easy game maker on PC. Larry wanted to be the protagonist, but couldn't decide about a genre for the game. It ended up looking like a horror-action-but-also-dating-sim game with a cooler and older version of Larry fighting horrible un-deads while also trying to flirt with the cute ones. It was meant as an inside joke between the two brothers and they got bored after three days. One year later, tho, Iggy secretly started to work on it again out of boredom and actually finished "developing" it, even publishing it on an obscure forum of free-to-play games. It now exists in the world under the name of "Larry Koopa: Zombie Heartbreaker".

Francis, Iggy's Chameleon online pal, is the only person who completed said game 100%. Iggy sent him an exclusive physical copy as a joke after learning about this.

Larry won't like finding out his game has been "published" without his consent - and most of all, for free. He will force Iggy to work on a sequel with an even cooler and adult version of Larry as the protagonist in the future, known as "Larry Koopa the Heartbreaker and The Revenge of the Dry Bones Queen". They will get royalties from that one, this time.

Some years ago Iggy started gifting tiny plants for every birthday he attends - usually, his siblings'. They can be flowers, succulent plants, carnivorous plants and even the equivalent of the SMB world of... weed (probably, some tiny variant of Wonder Flowers... we'll call it "Wonder Weed" lel) - but the vulcanic climate and his siblings' negligence will let the poor plants dry in a few days. Roy is the only one who is still happily cultivating his tiny Wonder Weed pots after three years.

Recently Iggy found out about TTRPG games; he tried to involve his sibs in it, convincing Lemmy and Ludwig at first, Roy after a while and Larry just recently. Iggy is currently mastering his first campaign of Thousand Years & Doors, with a party made of Ludwig (High Elf, Wizard), Lemmy (Firbolg, Druid), Roy (Half-Orc, Barbarian) and Larry (Dragonborn, Bard). Junior wants to play with them but knowing his bratty attitude they send him away claiming the game is for "Larry's age and up" only. 

Despite this, they are regretting letting Larry play, too. He's the classic "I only use Vicious Mockery! I'll destroy all my enemies INSULTING their parents and siblings and cousins in a *magical" way! Can I try to open the door exploding it with a bad joke?". Iggy is at least grateful that Larry is still too young, naive and not very into *adult jokes* yet, because as a deeply asexual Game Master he couldn't bear the even more stereotypical.... "18+ annoying bard attitude" (if you know a bit of IRL D&D classes stereotypes, you got what I mean.)

One of Iggy's biggest pet peeves revolves around "adult *spicy* jokes", especially when too explicit. He can't stand them. He hates them with all his heart and spirit. He just cringes so much hearing them that he would prefer sinking into the ground and disappearing instead.

He doesn't like bunnies much - herbivorous animals in general make him nervous, especially small ones. Maybe this is due to Roy always joking about Iggy looking like a carrot and that he could be in serious danger among a rabbit warren…

He's probably the only one in the family who, despite his name and all, can't sing or play any instrument. Ludwig could play a whole orchestra by himself and even more, Lemmy can play the electric guitar & bass, Roy can play the drums and the violin, Wendy can sing and loves to, Morton can kinda play the bass drum and has perfect timing with the triangle, Larry is learning how to play the electric keyboard and the Otamatone and is quite good at mixing and remixing music from his PC... and even Junior is starting to learn something about the transverse flute and the piano.

Once, Iggy tried to work on his own AI that could "create" music for him, of course using others' works as a "base" to train it. His siblings - especially Ludwig - basically threatened Iggy of unaliving him in response. "Go on. Try to put my music inside that bot. Then you'll enjoy eternity as a Dry Iggy, I can assure you". -Lud 

Rumors say that Iggy can instead dance quite well (in his own unique style), and even perform a perfect moonwalk. But nobody knows for sure...

His IQ score beats Ludwig's by a few points. Iggy is extremely satisfied by it, while Ludwig is trying to forget this information every day of his life.

When he was a kid, he created a "Time Machine" way before Professor E.Gadd himself. Iggy really wanted to see dinosaurs, and traveled "back in time" to observe them in their natural habitat. Then one way during his dino-watching, a random dude dressed with modern clothing passed by selling some "Yoshi-to-Fungi" dictionary, and Iggy understood that his "Time Machine" was actually working as a "quite normal, quite boring" teleporter to the Dinosaur Islands instead.

Bowser seized the opportunity using the fast-travel to get his army there, trying to conquest the Islands. But Mario was having a vacantion there and... it... didn't end well.

[spot-of-tea]

Okay so I've realised that I probably need to do a masterpost for all my au stuff I'm posting. I will definitely get on that later... when I remember (if I remember). But nevertheless we persist. Now my fic revolves around one particular family in general with one of the kids being the main protagonist. I'll reveal more when I finally feel comfortable enough to start posting the actual fic but the acronym I use for the fic is tswwid. If you can guess what it stands for, you'll get bragging rights. The only reason I'm not revealing the full name for the fic yet is because it makes the commitment way too real right now and I'm just having some fun. Also because the main characters name is in the title and I want to keep that somewhat of a secret for now.

But anyway... another family!

The Redfox Family

Gajeel and Levy had a somewhat tumultuous relationship, from enemies to friends to lovers. While they had initially planned to take things slowly after the war, the surprise arrival of their firstborn derailed those plans. Not long after the daughters birth the two finally settled and married. Their marriage and growing family ended up being the catalyst for many other guildmembers finally settling down and building their own families.

Lillian Redfox

Bookish like her mother but with the same penchant for heavy metals like her father. Lillian became something of a mechanic/inventor. With the continued technological advances Lillian ended up taking over the Fairytail secret basement after it was no longer needed and turned it into a sort of lab/workshop where she spends most of her days covered head to toe in grease and oil and up to her waist in whatever machine she's working on. Lillian (or Lily for short) was named after her uncle Panther Lily. The exceed was especially honoured by this choice. Levy was however particularly heartbroken to discover that her daughter had no magical potential, until Gajeel reminded her that it wasn't the end of the world for the girl, and that many members of the guild don't have magical potential either. The lack of magic has stopped the young woman and she is considered as one of the guild powerhouses.

Shutora Redfox

One half of the terror twins. While Gajeel would deny fainting when he discovered that his wife was carrying twins, he definitely fainted. Shutora takes after her father way too much, she's loud, brash and confrontational. She butts heads with almost all of her peers and has become extremely competitive with Nashi Dragneel (who she considers her rival). She can be handled on her own but when combined with her brother she becomes an unstoppable force. The two, while they fight and argue often, are practically inseparable. Shutora is a user of ferromancy, which she taught herself to use so that she could be more like her dad.

Yajeh Redfox

The other half of the terror twins. Yajeh is on the whole quieter than his twin and lets her be the distraction so he can strike from behind, however he can be just as loud as her when provoked. While he inherited his fathers love of music, he thankfully didn't inherit his skill level and has become quite the talented musician. Gajeel often enjoys creating music with his only son and the two enjoy playing for the guild in their downtime. Yajeh looks up to his sister Lillian a great deal, deciding to become a mechanic and inventor like her. Unlike his sister, however, Yajeh finds the melding of biology and mechanics to be fascinating and would be regarded as the guild's resident mad scientist, if his lab partner and friend Iggy Dragneel didn't already take that top spot.

[duckapus]

So while I was at work today I finally figured out how to transition from the setup phase of the Haltmann Meme Guardians AU to the second, more action-packed and properly story focused half of the arc.

Basically, Lag notices that there's some extra, unaccounted-for activity with the SMG commands, and when he asks the System why it didn't report this latest case of the False Positive glitch it insists that it isn't the glitch this time, just the new kids seeing what they can do. Now, that immediately sets off alarm bells in his head, since there isn't a new SMG universe, or even a plan to activate one anytime soon, and considering exactly which universe Lag used to be in charge of he's really not liking where this seems to be going.

He informs the rest of the main Admin group, they investigate, hoping beyond hope that it's not happening in the universe they all know it's going to be, and YEP, there's the newly rebuilt Access Arc sitting right on the edge of the SM64 universe's Solar System, practically marinating in Anti-Meme energy.

Unfortunately, as beings of pure code they can't go down and deal with this themselves. Well, technically they could, but that much Anti-Meme energy in that high a concentration would tear all but the strongest of them to shreds, and even those who could survive that would both be weakened enough to be completely at the mercy of whoever or whatever is in that station, and would need a month-long intensive detox treatment if they managed to get back out alive.

Meanwhile, all the mad scientists in the Mushroom Kingdom have disappeared, which includes Iggy Koopa and Eggman so BJ and Sage are freaking out, and given how the science fair all the way back at the start of the arc went down, not to mention the few times HWC has caused problems for them lately, the Crew does have one suspect in mind. So when the USBs tell them about the extra guardian/Anti-Meme space station thing, there's no doubt in their minds that the two situations are connected. And while the Admins can't directly investigate for the reasons stated above, and the Crew can't either since none of them are any good at subtlety, Mario, 4, Meggy and Saiko happen to know a certain semi-aquatic secret agent who can. And considering who one of the names on the list of missing scientists is, he's probably investigating already and would appreciate the lead.

So Perry infiltrates the new Access Arc while in contact with the Crew, and while he doesn't find everything he does find out some pretty important stuff. Obviously Susie's plan and the fact that her replacement Avatar/Guardian set are in fact children, and the fact that she's been very very exposed to the God Box fragment she ended up with and is absolutely not in her right mind (according to SMG1 it's a miracle that she hasn't turned into an Anti-Meme herself by now, let alone that she's as coherent as she is). But also the presence of Movie Mario, A.S.Swipe and the Salmonids, The Goomba, and a bunch of weird, fully purple Octoling Troopers with rough tentacles that Meggy finds oddly familiar.

There's also the fact that she kidnapped the mad scientists so she could give them front-row seats of her plan in action, partly to make up for how badly her last presentation in front of her peers went but mostly to rub it in E. Gadd's face.

Unfortunately for everyone, she's still missing one last thing to make the plan work; Elanore may be an Avatar, but she's not Super Mario 64's Avatar, and since neither the God Box nor The Goomba know how to fix that, she'll just have to reverse-engineer Mario's code and figure it out herself. To that end, she sends Yoshi to capture him, which manages to work.

With that new problem on top of all the other ones, it's actually Peach who comes up with a plan. Basically, if Haltmann wants a war, they've got one, but it'll be on the good guys' terms. The assorted militaries and superpowered beings of the world all band together, setting up to protect various key places around the globe, mainly the Mushroom Kingdom since that's where all the SMGs live but also various places that either have strategic value or one of the Crew and their extended friend group has some sort of connection to. After those preparations are complete, an armada of all sorts of weaponized space-faring vehicles will launch an assault on the Access Arc, both to force them into conflict before they're ready and provide a distraction for the Crew(plus Kirby since he's taken down an Access Arc before and is reasonably confident he can get through to his currently corrupted friend) to sneak aboard, extract Perry, and rescue Mario and the scientists(and whoever of the bad guys they can manage to get through to).

Melony specifically isn't part of the rescue team since she, Desmond, Steve, Super Sonic, Waluigi in his ultimate form and Ultra Instinct Shaggy, along with a few others, are going to be outside fighting Movie Mario so they don't have to deal with a crazy demon plumber tearing their entire armada apart or getting impatient and killing their Mario before it's safe to.

The kids also aren't going to be in any of the main battles, instead being kept safe in Primp Town...except Sage because she's Literally The Eggnet and the leader of the Eggman Empire in her dad's absence, and is thus in direct control of about a fifth of their side's collective firepower. Don't worry, just because they're not involved in the main conflicts doesn't mean they won't see some action of their own.

[jaqueline-00]

*Happy Iggy Koopa Day 2023* sketch/SMB-AU

ENG:

Happy Iggy Koopa Day 2023 ⚗️👓 

The fourth oldest brother of the Koopalings and the mad scientist.

What things does Iggy do in his spare time: 1. Make mischief with Kamek's potions or recreate them. 2. Annoying Ludwig with the discussion of which of the two is more intelligent.

ESP:

Feliz día de Iggy Koopa 2023 ⚗️👓 

El cuarto hermano mayor de los Koopalings y el loco científico.

Que cosas hace Iggy en sus tiempos libres: 1. Hacer travesuras con las pócimas de Kamek o recrearlas. 2. Molestar a Ludwig con la discusión de quien de los dos es más inteligente.

[jitt0]

In case I haven’t told anyone I do have an AU for Mario and the Koopalings that involves my original character as well as it involves the Mario cartoon ( adventures of super Mario Bros 3) it’s pretty much just my original character but it’s in the Mario universe and (if anyone’s ever seen the Mario cartoon ever) if anyone recognizes the big pipe that leads the couplings and Mario’s friends to the real world, there is also one that leads to the super Mario game universe (if that makes any sense at all)

Anyway in the AU Kooky von Koopa and Iggy Koopa are naturally good friends since both of them are mad scientists/inventors

Long story short they made this robot, it’s name is Sepski

(thanks to anyone who actually read this whole thing <3)

[shiroe-is-my-baby]

♡ Ship Names - Masterpost ♡

A directory/list of my ships and their tags! I edited it from my last one since I have new ones and since the other one was in need of a change anyway. The first link takes you to every post, headcanon, fic, or other of the ship. The next one will take you to reblogs and face posts of those characters!

♡ Shirey - my husband (Shiroe)

♡ Asuna - my queen (Asuna)

♡ Queen of games - pharaoh husband (Yami Yugi)

♡ Hacked my heart - hacker husband (Saeyoung)

♡ Gothic moonlight - goth dad(dy) graves (Graves)

♡ Forbidden love - enforcer boyfriend (Kogami Shinya) (may be changed later)

♡ Ginley - my ginny (Nobuchika Ginoza)

♡ Raider of my soul - my goddess (Lara Croft)

♡ Juley - my juju (Jumin Han)

♡ Pearls and shotgun shells - my rugged husband (Booker DeWitt)

♡ Imaginative souls - my knight (Satoru Fujinuma) based off of a hc of a inside joke

♡ Love in the wrong time - my lee (Lee Everett)

♡ Food for the soul - chef husband (Kojiro Shinomiya)

♡ Pierce my soul - sniper bae (Widowmaker)

♡ Violet hearts - hacker girlfriend (Sombra)

♡ Follow your lead - Ragna (Ragna the Bloodedge)

♡ Stitched souls - my mad scientist (Stein)

♡ Silver & amethyst - my iggy (Ignis)

♡ Kyanley (Kyanna)

♡ Interstellar dreams - stellar gf (Celeste)

♡ Unbreakable bond - pretty boi (TOMA)

♡ My lucky clover - ken bby (KENT)

♡ Ashuki - smol bean wife (Akatsuki)

♡ we’re a team - my big bad wolf (Bigby)

♡ Stand by your side - van (Abraham van Helsing)

♡ Trust in me - victor baby (my victor)

♡ Supreme love - delia (Cordelia Foxx)

♡ Queen of megane - harem au (harem bois)

♡ Battle of hearts - my king (Reisi Munakata)

♡ Love like poison - vampire boyfriend (REIJI)

♡ Expresso lovers - my coffee

♡ Heroine of my dreams -  (Midnight)

♡ Blooming love - sweet teddy bear (Maes)

♡ From blood to lust and love

OT3

♡  SHIRASHUKI (Shiroe & Akatsuki)

♡  JUMAELEY (Jumin & Saeyoung)

♡  KOGASHOZA (Kogami & Ginoza)

♡  LIGHT OF MY UNIVERSE (Simon & Kamina)

**MAY EDIT LATER. IN CONSTRUCTION**

[loki-of-war]

Angels Carried Us Away

Hey! I decided to share this idea with you guys, see if you like it here on tumblr. I really love this concept of Seer!Prompto and it would be cool if more people joined in <3 So I’ll be leaving the links to the fic on ff and ao3 down below if you would prefer to read it there and if you do check them out, please don’t go without leaving a comment, that’s the most important thing :)

AO3

FANFICTION.NET

Summary: “How much will you be willing to sacrifice for your King’s sake, Prompto Argentum?”

“What would you offer the Gods in order to spare him of his destiny? What will you give up?”

“The life of the Seer to protect the Guardian’s own!  Mortals are fickle things”‘

A.K.A. Seer!Prompto AU

Main Pairings: Promptis, more pairings will come up as the story advances.

Prologue: end in the beginning

Prompto didn’t know what he was doing or what he was supposed to do for that matter. He stood at the middle of a long line of people waiting to be allowed inside the safety of Insomnia, in his possession only a couple of gils given to him by the lady who brought him there, the torn clothes he was wearing and a bandage covering the black blemish on his wrist. From time to time, he’d find himself touching the outline of it in nervous anticipation and time and time again he would have to pull his hand away, back to his side, drum his fingers against his thigh instead. What a way not to bring suspicion to the barcode underneath, he admonished in his head.

The first thing he was told before being left on his own, “You must not let anyone see this mark”. The woman held his tainted wrist in a strong but gentle grip, her blue eyes shining with a myriad of sentiments Prompto was too young yet to comprehend.

“Do you understand me, Prompto?” He had nodded, hands balled into tiny fists. Everything was going too fast for him but he didn’t want to disappoint her.

“Yes, I do” His voice was too child like for his liking, didn’t help him ascertain his determination.

“Very well. Remember, your name is Prompto Argentum. Your family was…” she fell silent, seeming to struggle to continue speaking. Prompto watched her take deep breaths; her face was turned away so he could not see her expression, covered by locks of sun kissed hair. For some reason, he felt his own breathing intensify, and he started to quiver, pants falling from his lips as if he had been running for miles. He felt like he had swallowed a glass of nails as the blonde lady faced him once more, her eyes moist. “I’m really sorry, my dear boy. This is not what I wished for you. Believe me, if I could, if I was able to, I would spare you from what is to come. If only things were different…”

She paused, the tip of her nose red as the rim of her eyes. “But there is no point dwelling on what can’t be changed. The universe works in mysterious ways and this is the path the Gods have chosen for you so dearest, please, be brave. No matter what happens, don’t waver. Don’t hesitate. Never doubt yourself. Face your destiny with courage. If you ever feel weak, abandoned, or lost, remember you are stronger than your trials. And most importantly, never stop looking at this world in wonder; never stop seeing the beauty in this earth despite the cruelty and pain you have been forced to witness. Enjoy every day as if it’s your last-“

Her voice broke mid-sentence.

Prompto’s vision at that moment was blurry from the tears cascading down his cheeks. He didn’t know why he’d started crying. His chest ached with each painful beat of his small heart, there was a knot at the base of his throat that prevented him from speaking, from reaching out to her and comfort her, take a little from what was weighing her down.

Words weren’t needed. She immediately burst into the tears she had tried to repress for the remainder of the conversation and wrapper her skinny arms around his slight frame, tightly, almost as if she was afraid he’d disappear into thin air. His head rested in the hollow between her collarbones. It felt warm in a way that hadn’t been since Prompto had woken up in his cage in the labs, since he had run away with this unknown lady who had tried her hardest to keep him safe and alive throughout their entire journey to Insomnia and he was infinitely grateful, despite the sadness of the situation. He returned the embrace and let the scent of sunflowers that clung to her skin calm his inner turmoil. He ought to memorize it, the smell, keep it in memory in honor of his savior. He inhaled deeply and knew, though he couldn’t explain why, that this was the last time he would see her.

He sobbed harder.

Her fingers carded through his greasy hair. It was a motherly touch; different from the cold and detached manner the doctors and scientists in Niflheim treated him. He wished he could have this forever, even when he felt wetness on his bare shoulder, where the woman’s face was buried. Maybe she was trying to learn his smell as well, though Prompto had no idea why she would want to.

When he got older, he would wonder why she had risked everything for another random, worthless experiment.

It seemed like hours had passed when the older of the two finally pulled away and the boy instantly missed her warmth. She looked broken, her relatively young face drowning in sorrows the kid had yet to experience.

“This is it.” She said “This is as far as I can go”

He wanted to ask why but felt that deep down inside him he understood. He said nothing, nodded again. Whispered a heartfelt “Thank you”.

She just smiled, a small uplift of the corner of her lips, a little sad, a little happy and stretched out her right hand to cup his sunken cheek. Then, her fingers traveled to his own mouth, pulling at the skin there so it’d look like he was giving her a half smile. “Always smile, Prompto, even in the darkest of times”. Her shaking hand let go and he did as she told him, he gave her a smile, the biggest one he could muster despite the snot and the tear tracks.

“That’s a good one. Just like that” And for the first time, she acted out of character. Sticking her two thumbs up, she copied Prompto’s smile. Brilliant like the sun, contrasting with her very sad eyes.

It was like looking at his reflection.

“Farewell, my boy. All my hopes, my dreams, my wishes, they shall stay with you”

With those words, she wiped her eyes, straightened her posture and turned around, immediately walking away from Prompto. Her steps hurried down the path they had walked together just minutes ago. Perhaps, if she dared one last look at Prompto, if she slowed down, if she hesitated, she would go back to him. Perhaps, if she let herself, she would take Prompto with her to wherever she was going. Far away from his fate. More and more, she was disappearing, her back getting further away from reach the more she kept walking, her blonde hair flowing with every step she took farther from him and he had an unexplainable urge to run after, grab onto her sleeve, hold onto her. Before it was too late. Before he lost the most important thing.

His right hand reached out to do just that, his fingers seeking the impossible. The limb stayed there, suspended in the air. The figure soon was barely a speck on the horizon. Prompto held his ground, his feet firmly planted even when his heart had soared after her and he remembered every moment they shared (her worried gaze, her urgent tone as she told him to move, move, we have to go now, her warm touch gauging for a fever, the soft lullaby she’d sing at night thinking that he was asleep, nimble hands applying the bandage over his mark, moving from one place to another, praying together, hiding in the woods in fear of the Empire finding them…).

The tears didn’t stop. He felt empty, almost like he had lost a part of himself. Slowly, his hand closed into a fist, went back to his side. Prompto knew he had run out of time and later, if all went right, he would have time to mourn what he had lost, whatever that was.

He didn’t want to disappoint her.

So, he took a deep breath and with his battered soul, he started for the gates of Insomnia, hundreds of people he hadn’t noticed previously making their way towards the same place in search of sanctuary.

“Is it over?”

“I think so. Hell, I hope so”

“About time”

“Yeah…”

“Are you okay? I mean, do you feel anything weird or-“

“I’m fine, Noct. Really. Chill out, we just won ourselves the battle of the centuries. Don’t worry about me, yeah?”

“He has plenty of reasons to worry, Prompto, and for that matter so do we.”

“I’m with Iggy there, just tell us if-“

“It doesn’t matter anyway. What matters is that this madness is finally over. Believe me, this is for the best”

“What are you talking about? What is for the best?”

“You’re freaking us out, man”

“The price has to be paid…”

“The price? I wasn’t told anything about a price”

“Because it isn’t yours to pay, Noct… Listen you all, I just wanted to say, thanks for letting me join you and bearing with me all this time. And I already know what you’re going to say, that I’m your friend and I shouldn’t even have to thank you, but the thing is… I do. You don’t know how long I’ve felt like I’m an outsider but being with you on this journey, you’ve made me feel like I do belong even when I know that I actually don’t. Thank you for rescuing me, thank you for not giving up on me, thank you not shunning me out for being an MT, thank you for supporting me, thank you for making me a part of your family, thank you for making memories with me. Asides from all the bad, and the pain and the loss, these have been the happiest months of my life. Every photo I took, I cherish all of them, and you don’t know how much it meant for me taking them with you.”

“Ignis, you’re the best cook in the entire world and I appreciate greatly that you bothered to make all of our meals for us, even when we were being assholes to you. Also, you are like the perfect combination between mother and best friend and I mean that in the best way possible. You always take care of us, put up with our immature bullshit, mend our clothes, play the responsible parent- I mean the responsible one, and all the while you’re the heart of this group. You keep us in our right minds when it all seems lost.

“Gladio, I was so afraid of you at first I almost pissed my pants on our first meeting but after that horrific impression I can now say that I’m very glad I got to know you. You’re the bully older brother I never had but hopelessly wished for every birthday and I really envy Iris for having such a cool brother. You mess with me all the time and yes, I do whine about it all the time but truth is, I think is nice of you to act so familiar with me, a random weirdo with a camera who just tagged along. Know that you’re too the strength of this team and jokes aside, you were really missed when you were gone”

“It was fun riding with you, guys”

“…”

“Noctis…”

“Thank you!”

[definitely-not-a-wasp]

There is something about the Iggy Doing Mad Science for Powerups AU that I’ve been rotating in my brain, and how specifically it changes the framing of the “reveals”. Bc in canon (from my memory) he acted that he didn’t fully notice either of his abilities at first, mentioning it offhand, and only later realizing what he was experiencing was abnormal.

Which just… wouldn’t really be possible in the Mad Science AU. Because you bet Iggy would be mentally logging every single change in his vision, weighing his expectations with what’s actually happening. He knew about these changes far before he vocalized them. So those reveals, like the power ups themselves, turn into a CHOICE.

He chooses that these are moments he reveals these abilities to his flock. He chooses to frame them as random powers. He chooses to be nonchalant and brush it off, let them connect the pieces and draw conclusions. He’s acting a role. He’s lying to his family— how can he not, when he’s doing the same thing to himself that the whitecoats did to all of them, treating his body like an experiment instead of something sacred?

It portrays a sense of protectiveness, a sense of mistrust, a desire to keep a part of himself hidden from the people he’s closest with. Out of shame, maybe. Out of fear. Out of knowing that if THEY knew he was capable of performing these experiments, he’d change forever in their eyes.

So he lies. He acts as surprised as they are, and pretends it’s a miracle instead of his own genius that led him here.

Always a good liar.

[definitely-not-a-wasp]

More on my "Iggy mad-scienced his way into superpowers" AU (and my continued crusade against the nature of the flock's power ups), here he is: area man tries to restore his vision, accidentally tanks his blood oxygen in the process.

Further notes as the AU develops:

Iggy's restored sight (still legally blind, just no longer NLD) is only in one eye. The other was so damaged that being able to see out of it did nothing but cause severe pain and flash-blindness (way more unpleasant than normal blindness in Iggy's opinion), so he purposefully killed the nerve endings to let himself see out of his other eye

The "only need to breathe every 10-15 minutes" is not "be able to hold breath for 10-15 minutes". It means he can function by taking 4-6 breaths an hour (he doesn't tend to, because his body is still used to breathing, but he still does so considerably less than average.)

YES, he looks like that permanently.

[definitely-not-a-wasp]

Maximum Ride versus Spontaneous Power Ups

Part 1

I'm not saying that giving the bird kids power ups isn't fun and funky. But I am definitely not the first person to point out that they're not the best executed, and often take more away from the plot than they add. And someone asked me to state my opinions about one (1) contrived power-up, so now you get to hear about all of them.

Speaking from a general perspective, I have some major problems with Maximum Ride superpowers, and they're as-follows:

They just HAPPEN. There's no trigger, there's no effort on the flock's part to "unlock" them, and there's no explanation given.

They're often these one-off powers that don't maintain narrative significance or further explanations.

Most of the time, they have absolutely no drawbacks.

Yes, I know this is copy-pasted from part 1, what about it?

So this is what I would do to try to solve some of those issues without changing the plot too much. And because I'm nice, I'm sticking it under a read-more.

Pre-Book 1

In the beginning of book 1, Max states that a lot of the flock has "little quirks" like Angel's telepathy, and then the text makes it clear that this is only true of Angel and Gazzy. That means it's completely acceptable to shove a few more powers into pre-series, with the implication that the School caused this before they escaped.

Angel's telepathy, obviously: I've extensively talked about my thoughts surrounding Angel's telepathy, but to rehash, there are plenty of advantages and drawbacks to anything concerning the brain. Telepathy is a boon, but it shouldn't be a pleasant boon. And while this power can definitely grow throughout the series, I think it should stick to telepathy, and not extend towards clairvoyance/precognition like it did in later books.

Gazzy's mimickry: I think this doesn't even need to count as a power, because Lyrebirds can already do that. As Angel grows more powerful, his mimickry can further extend from bird calls to specific human voices to the sounds of objects, and have him learn how to throw his voice.

Nudge's Psychometry: similar to Angel's telepathy, this is a psionic ability, and putting it in pre-series instead of when they miraculously need it makes it feel built-into the narrative. This can also be slowly expanded upon throughout the series, from touching an object and knowing any emotions associated with it, to being able to recall certain moments attached to the object, so being able to touch something and know its entire history.

Gazzy's precognition: "Wait, Gazzy doesn't have precognition", you're totally right, but consider: Precognition is already a thing in the books, because Angel. Gazzy only has two power-ups and one of them is farts. By transferring precognition from Angel to Gazzy and making it start pre-series, there's a bit more of a balance to keep us from getting an OP six-year-old. Like Nudge and Angel, this can start small (having "bad feelings" and being really good at dodging attacks bc he sees them pre-emptively) and build up to something like knowing when someone dies or the exact date and time the world is supposed to end.

Max's, Fang's, and Iggy's ability to withstand the younger three's powers: I think that they should be essentially immune to their younger siblings not because of their own powers, but because of exposure. The younger kids can definitely glean some things, especially when their powers are weak, but the more invasive their powers become, the more immune the older kids get. IE: Angel can read their emotions and sometimes their minds, but she can't control them. Nudge can pick something up and know it's associated with one of them/important to them, but can't tell what they did with it. Gazzy knows if something bad is going to happen, but looking for anything specific or intentional feels like trying to see past a brick wall.

So all of the psionics are at the beginning. And furthermore, there's a clear divide that shows when the School started handling psionic powers. Max, Fang, and Iggy don't have powers. They're old models. But somewhere between Iggy and Nudge, the School had a breakthrough, and the new models have brain powers.

Once the Plot Starts

The next round of powerups makes most sense if it happens as a result of the School's experimentation in TAE-- have the flock NOT be threatened with murder, and instead have tests run on them until they break out, which can take a lot longer. This means that Iggy and Gazzy are excluded, because they were not in the School. But after they escape the School, some abilities can begin to crop up, like:

Max's super speed: originally put in SoF and developed after a slight fever, it could also easily fit into TAE, with Max breaking out of the School while heavily feverish and developing fast flight, specifically regarding dives— similarly to Gazzy's mimickry, this can be staged as less of a power and more of something that happened to her because of her bird DNA that the whitecoats were activation/fine-tuning at the School. The ridiculousness of 350 mph can only occur during dives, though.

Everyone except for Iggy and Gazzy breathing underwater: I didn't realize until I read the wikipedia page that everyone except Iggy and Gazzy canonically has this power, making it a PERFECT power-up to give them after being kidnapped when Iggy and Gazzy were conveniently NOT kidnapped. That being said, this is also a great power to give drawbacks to show that the Flock is not immune to experiments going wrong: FIrstly, they can only breathe underwater in fresh water, like lungfish; they suddenly have to drink a lot more water and easily get dehydrated; they are really suseptible to bronchitis and pneumonia because they're taking water into their lungs that were not originally designed to do that, so they try to do it as little as possible.

And from there, we have...

The Voice

Fuck this thing in particular. There are TWO directions Voice can take in my mind:

It doesn't exist. Full-stop get rid of it, because all it does is take away character agency and give Max answers instead of make the authors think about how Max can figure it out herself.

It's an instrument of the School, preferably controlled by Jeb Batchelder (if it wants to be wishy washy about whose side its on) OR Marian Janssen (if it's an outright antagonist). It disappears once the School is dealt with, and most importantly, is not her own power or a power of her flock. It is a power being used on her.

I've already wasted too much of my life on thinking about this. Since I've already covered gills and psychometry, let's skip over the NYC arc.

After the IFHL

From here, I think there are a few moments where some powers can be gained, and some should definitely not be gained.

Firstly, there's Fang's superspeed. This can develop like it did in canon, where Max donates blood, and Fang gets a fraction of her abilities. However, this isn't even a School-done power, so I think they should reject the blood at first. They get really sick, the doctors have to put them on heavy immuno-suppressants for pretty much the entirety of being at Anne's, and their body temperature permanently jumps up past where it should be.

Then they leave Anne's house, they go on the run, Max gets kidnapped and shoved in a sensory deprivation tank, and she absolutely does not to get to shut down her organs, because it never comes up again and never needs to. Her being able to smell the flock and track them down can have one of two solutions:

She doesn't. She tracks them down another way.

Instead of her hallucinating herself turning into an Eraser, Gazzy has been feeling increasing unease about Max being in proximity to Erasers and can't tell why bc he can't see Max's future. Then, when she escapes the tank in ITEX, she does so by biting an Eraser and swallowing quite a bit of blood and sinew on accident. Suddenly she can smell so many things and her teeth are much sharper than they were a few days ago. Congrats, Max! Power up!

Finally, they reach the School again/are kidnapped again, which is where I guess Angel could possibly unlock shapeshifting, but considering the School was talking about exterminating all of them, I'm thinking no. I think shapeshifting is also on the cutting room floor. However, I think the School definitely should have taken them all out for testing over a few days rather than skipping right to "kill the multi-million dollar investments that are supposed to save the world, bc why not?" (Seriously, who wrote this?), because—

Iggy's Powerups

I've talked about this before, I'll talk about it again, but Iggy's powerups were not brought on by the School, were not spotaneous, were not accidental power transfers, but were intentionally done by Iggy, who was gathering data and running tests throughout the entire series. He doesn't get enough data until he's kidnapped by the School again, at which point Max and Fang probably realize that he's getting a bit sickly and his eyes look permanently irritated, then that there are bruises on his arm he doesn't want to talk about. Then, after breaking into ITEX again and gathering proper resources, he gets:

Detecting light and movement against bright backgrounds, which was his intention.

Color sense, which was an accidental side effect, and not a pleasant sensation for him. Also comes with a disadvantage of not remembering what many colors look like, so he has to guess for a lot of them.

Decreased Oxygen Intake: "wait, he didn't get this in canon!" yeah, because the only power-up JP gave him was pseudo-sight to fix his blindness, so I'm giving him more. Turned out, what he was honing in on was making his eyes function despite them not getting enough oxygen. And he was doing that for his whole body, completely on accident. So his Blood Oxygen percentage can drop to 60 without any ill-effects, his resting heart rate is slowed to about 10 bpm, and he's taking about 1 breath every 10-15 minutes unless he needs air to talk. This takes place over weeks, so he doesn't actually notice it until someone points it out.

This comes with not-so-great side effects. He's cold all the time, his eyes hurt constantly and have permanently burst blood vessels, and his fingers and lips are permanently discolored.

Through the Late Series

After ITEX is taken down, I think the power-getting would decrease exponentially, because they're not being experimented on nearly as much. However, there are a few that I think could be fit in.

Nudge's "Magnetism": I put this in bold and parentheses, because it wouldn't be magnetism, it would be a honing of her psychometry; if an object has a strong enough emotional attachment to her or any of the other psionic kids, she can attract it. Minor telekenesis. As a treat. This is the closest thing I can justify.

Fang's Camoflauge: This was pure accident, and less of a power-up and more of a "came back wrong". Triggered by their death and revival, both of which were unnatural, Fang gets the voluntary organ shutdown that Max doesn't get, and has spaces of time where they don't need to breathe, blink, and their heart slows considerably, meaning that they can be perfectly still in a way that makes people look at them and think "object" instead of "person", and their vision just... glances over them. However, this is not something they can do intentionally. This is almost always when they're dissociating.

Fang's Immortality Genes: I guess that since it's integral to the plot of Nevermore, I can make it work. This was building from School's Out Forever, when they nearly died from Ari's attack, being killed in Fang, nearly getting blown up in Angel, and getting thrown off a cliff in Nevermore. In fact, I would go as far as having their expiration date show up and then pass. By then, it's discovered that they have the "secret to immortality". This does not actually protect them from dying. It protects their genes from unravelling over time, which means they're not ageing. This is not a power-up. This is not a successful experiment. This is the scifi equivalent of being undead, because Fang is pretty much a walking corpse by the end of the series.

Powers Left on the Cutting Room Floor

Angel's Shapeshifting: I barely like shapeshifting Erasers, and it occurs so late in the series that it's not needed.

Gazzy's Flatulence Bombs: Just let him do chemical warfare the old fashioned way I'm begging you.

Max's voluntary organ shutdown: IT ONLY HAPPENS ONCE. I promise you, Max could've thought her way out of that situation.