Five Streamers, Six Guardians

Defeated, but not quite dead (Jean-Pierre)

a/n: this au idea has been stuck in my head for at least a month now and i've begun writing it so naturally everyone must deal with me and my self-indulgent au fic that i'm choosing to spend way too much time and energy on (i literally have certain things planned out from a gameplay perspective and from a webcomic perspective, it's a fair assessment at this point). i'd say i'm sorry but i'm really not. essentially this au is just the brainchild of 'i wanted to write about my los throughout pmtok (but i really don't want them dying again so early' and 'okay but...my los but sort of redeemed antagonists who eventually join Mario and Olivia as partners? sort of?? maybe?? perhaps we'll see'

ik a lot of this is probably ooc or makes no sense but honestly? i am just having fun with this and i've already written two whole chapters of this idea and have started on the third, so...i'm not changing it lol. i tried to make it work, but i'm not sure how well i did so eh? ig it doesn't matter too much since this is au territory anyways. plus it'd honestly work out better with the way my los are and with their whole backstories, anyways. some specific things will be explained as i go though (like the aftermath of their defeats, the streamers, etc). so i hope y'all enjoy this self-indulgent mess of a fanfic? outside of Dragonspeaker this is getting most of my attention so i'm probably going to be working on this for a while

and just as a note for reference, Jean-Pierre (CP) uses he/she/they but i mainly use they/them for Jean within their own narration (partially for consistency and partially because that's what he'd mainly use when referring to themself - other characters will use other sets more ofc). i say this mainly because the first couple of chapters will be in her pov and i mainly just want to do the los' povs. Jean and Robin (Rubber Band, cele/they) are also siblings as another note

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They woke up to a sharp pain searing through their body. It shot mostly through their arms and chest - the most injured part of them, Jean-Pierre would assume. The pain in their...well, everything, refused to numb. It was the kind of pain that one would assume an ice pack could help, but it seemed mighty worthless in Jean-Pierre's case. Whatever they tried to do, it was greeted with a brand new surge of agony in their chest. No amount of ice would help numb their pain, they guessed.

So they instead forced themself to wake up fully.

What had happened to them to bring them such violent hurt? They...honestly weren't too sure. Obviously it had to be some sort of fight, as the way the pain presented itself rang familiar to the wounds of past battles they fought in. But why would they be fighting again...?

...Scratch that, maybe it wasn't as important yet. Where were they? Their eyes were snapped shut - Jean-Pierre didn't particularly desire to keep them open when they felt that the slightest movement would cause further disarray within their body. But they could hear a faint breeze whistling in their ears, carrying the songs of the nearby birds. Disregarding the fuzzy inside of the gloves they had on, the ground beneath them was cold and smooth, and hard to the touch. Hmm. Definitely not on any sort of soil, then.

Probably some kind of building. It didn't give them any more of a clue as to where they were, however - until they felt a small strip of fabric land on their nose. What is-?

They slowly peeked an eye open to see that the fabric was in fact, a red bit of confetti. T-that's...part of the streamer, isn't it? The streamer...they had been guarding it, hadn't they? Not for fun or anything like that, they had been tasked with that job - not that they seemed to have done a good job of it, bits of streamer scattered across the concrete floor. Bits of the spool accompanied it, though they quickly dissolved into...well, Jean-Pierre wasn't sure. It was some kind of yellow aura, they were certain, but that was it.