With the power of a thousand exploding suns

[hollyhobbies]

WARRIOR/GUARDIAN AU MEME

In a world rife with war against monstrous fiends, there are those praised for their natural strength and healing abilities. Marked with a symbol which represents either a sword or shield, these individuals are further powered when contracted with those bearing the opposite symbol. Because of this, contracts are deemed mandatory once an individual turns eighteen years of age.

While contracted, Warriors (sword) and Guardians (shield) become sensitive to one another's emotional and physical states. The stronger the bond between them, the more power and abilities can be unlocked. While it's possible to form and break contracts at any given time, the result is a numb and draining sensation which takes time to recover from, making it in everyone's best interest to keep a lifelong contract. After all, the most legendary pairs are the ones who've been together for many years. And with monstrous armies constantly on the attack, the world needs all the help it can get.

Due to Warriors and Guardians being so vital to the city's survival, they are simultaneously treated as royalty by society and kept under close watch by the government. Powered individuals are assigned large and lavish living spaces within a closed community while Commoners, those who lack powers, are situated in surrounding mediocre homes. A vast shield around the city is among the greatest protection against monsters of the outside world, second to the combined power of brave Warrior and Guardian citizens.

But everything couldn't possibly run as smoothly as they do now without the help of Commoners. Everyone has an important role to play in the world. Which one have you been born into?

HOW TO PLAY -
• Post with your character and preferences.
• Choose their role and feel free to include a brief summary of ideal partner personalities, job duties, etc.
• Pick a prompt and tag around!

ROLES

• Warrior: Those whose supernatural abilities lie in offensive attacks, physical strength, debuffing the enemy, etc.
• Guardian: Those whose supernatural abilities lie in defensive attacks, support, healing, buffing allies, etc.
• Commoner: Those who are born without any supernatural abilities. Commoners are viewed as second-class citizens, as their duties revolve around aiding Warriors and Guardians however they can. i.e. Maids, cooks, weaponsmiths, entertainers, etc.
• Monster: Those who are the greatest threat to humankind. Because they also possesses supernatural abilities, it's been rumored that they share ancestral ties with Warriors and Guardians. Though Monsters are at war with humans, there are some who are indifferent to them altogether and choose a life of peace.

PROMPTS

1. The Contract - Could this be your very first or possibly even your thirtieth? Whatever the case, you've trusted them enough to give them a glimpse into your soul so long as you're together. Will you take advantage of that vulnerability? Or use it to build a healthy relationship? Unfortunately, not all contracts are as perfect as they may seem on the surface.


2. Training - Good teamwork is the difference between life and death so it's important to ensure you and your partner are focused and in sync, especially before a mission.


3. Bonding - Physical intimacy between Warriors and Guardians is an experience unlike any other, but emotional intimacy is where it all begins. Spend some time together outside of combat, share in each other's interests, get to know their likes and dislikes. It might not seem important at first but in the long run it will make you both stronger.


4. Mission Time - Is it a long and perilous journey outside the barrier to slay Monsters? A short and simple quest to gather special materials from a specific region? A reconnaissance mission to survey unexplored territory? Whatever you two were assigned, just remember what comes first: keeping each other alive.


5. Aftercare - The aftermath of a mission can be incredibly taxing, both on the mind and body. Injuries may need to be tended to, emotional states may need to be realigned - especially if you or your partner came close to facing death. But hopefully your partner is there to provide the comfort you'll likely need in this time of vulnerability.


6. Downtime - When you're busy training or working all the time, it's easy to forget just how lively the city can be. How do you choose to spend your free time in it? Partying the night away? Visiting friends and family? Or maybe you're the type who just likes to stay in for a quiet night.


7. Different Classes - Whether they're a maid, tailor, or even family, Commoners make up the majority of the city's population. But even if society might see them as lesser doesn't mean they should be treated that way. Over the years, some may despise or be fearful of the supernaturally powered, but there are also some who've developed or maintained close relationships in spite of it all.


8. Forbidden Love - It's illegal for Warriors and Guardians to develop romantic relations with Commoners, extremely taboo with those they aren't currently contracted to, and utterly unthinkable to even speak to Monsters. But love doesn't discriminate. If you have to sneak around to see your lover then so be it, but sooner or later your partner or the government is bound to find out, right?


9. On the Run - For whatever reason, you and someone else have decided to start a new life far away from the city and its strict rules. It wasn't easy slipping away from under the government's watchful eye and it won't get any easier with monsters around every corner, but maybe you can find a way to make it work and live happily ever after. Just know that the government always finds a way to get what they want in the end.


10. Wildcard - Mix and match or choose your own adventure!

Comments

Rumi | KPop Demon Hunters | OTA

[denyingit]

[Could be either Warrior or Guardian, could be half-monster thing too considering her canon or we can skip that part, either works for me, we can talk about any and all options, ideas etc... She's canonly 23-24, so been here for a while if this started when she turned 18! Castmates (especially JINUS and her girls), crosscanon, crossmedium, assumed CR, AUs (obviously in this case), OCs etc all always welcome. 20+ OTA]

usagi tsukino | sailor moon | f/m

[bydaylights]

[ Warrior of love and justice and all that. ]

Chrissy Cunningham + Stranger Things + OTA

[cheerybomb]

[Her parents were expecting she'd crop up a Guardian, like the rest of the women in the family, so being marked as a Warrior was a surprise.
Getting taken by a Monster during a routine training exercise was a tragedy.
Coming back from that, months later, was... another surprise, something that her parents don't trust, though the City has assessed that she's still in fighting shape and has been trying to assign her a new Guardian since her return & recovery.
Also available as a dude/surprise Guardian flavor at ccunningham, just let me know which you prefer.]

Techie | Dredd | OTA

[clan_techie]

[A Guardian who has been at the mercy of a Monster for some time now. It's entirely possible that he was never formally trained, but he was pulled out of The Mother's lair along with a few others she was keeping and sent to the nearest City for evaluation & pairing off.]

Ilya | Heated Rivalry | OTA

[doesnotblush]

[I definitely lean towards Guardian, even with as cocky as he is, but it really could go either way.]

[outintheopen]

(( For some reason all I'm thinking is Ilya as a Guardian and Scott as Commoner ))

[doesnotblush]

[I'm down! Some kind of rescue/escort mission? Some kind of training scenario? Some kind of underground getting unbonded halves out of the City kind of thing? I like adding uhhhh lot more lore to this AU than is probably normal.]

[outintheopen]

(( Haha nothing wrong with that! What if Scott was assigned to Ilya as a servant, since most commoners serve Warriors and Guardians in some way but Ilya decides to help him get free somehow? ))

[doesnotblush]

[Lol now I'm just imagining that they (city officials or whoever) think giving him a valet will keep him from getting aggro about being bounced from city to city while they're trying to get him a match.
All they really managed to do was give him an accomplice.]

[outintheopen]

(( Haha yes. Maybe even a bit more depending on how we wanna play it ))

[doesnotblush]

[Exactly! I'm very much a 'see what develops' kind of person, especially in AU territory.
So first meeting or shortly thereafter (first event or something) I think? Throw me something, I'll run with it.]

[outintheopen]

(( All righty! I went with first meeting, but let me know if you want me to change anything ))

[ All Scott had ever wanted to do since he was a kid was help people. And while he knew that his chances of being a Warrior or Guardian were slim, he still hoped and imagined what it would be like to be one, to be able to protect people.

As he grew older and it became increasingly obvious that he had no supernatural abilities, he was still determined to be able to help somehow. And while being what amounted to a servant for a Warrior or Guardian wasn't the exactly ideal, he reasoned that being able to help them meant that they would continue to be able to help people as a whole, so it was at least something.

And he told himself that he could deal with that, until he'd been assigned to Ilya Rozanov.

He only really knew the Guardian from reputation, and even that was hard to say how much of that was true. There were a lot of the rumors about why Ilya remained unmatched to a Warrior - he didn't take anything seriously, he was lazy, he had a bad temper and a bad attitude. Scott had heard a lot of things about him.

And while he isn't entirely happy about being assigned to serve him, he decided to try at least giving Ilya the benefit of the doubt and try to get along with him.

Not that he had much of a choice. The man was still a Guardian, after all, and no matter people's opinions of Ilya, if the man decided he didn't like Scott, Scott would be the one getting in trouble for it. ]

[doesnotblush]

Some of those rumors were true and some of that reputation was earned, he had a chip on his shoulder roughly the size of the Capital, one that came mostly from the fact that the Powers That Be kept insisting that he needed a Warrior to actually do any good, despite the fact that his defensive magic was better than most Warriors' offensive magics.

He'd even been temporarily paired off twice, once with disastrous results -which was where the rumors of his laziness came from, he was sure- and once with an amicable parting, and he had no doubt that if they didn't find a stronger pair-bond for Svetlana they'd try pairing the two of them up again.

Mostly the problem was that he asked too many questions, he wasn't as convenient to pair off as his mother had been, and it was a point of contention among the un-paired Warriors that most of his scores in the training sims were on par -or higher- than theirs were, regardless of which city-dome he was assigned to.

He'd been told that he was being assigned an assistant, that it was standard for someone who'd been without a lasting bond for as long as he had. Which he took to mean that he was going to have someone to nag him about rules and regulations and to report back to the officials on his every move and infraction. Even though his initial assumption was a cynical one, there was still part of him that hoped he'd find an ally in whoever was assigned.

He leaned one shoulder against the doorframe, arms folded loosely across his chest as he regarded Scott, sniffing just once, "So you're the one who's going to make sure I'm presentable for events and try to make sure I don't say things I shouldn't." A considering little noise, pushing himself up from his lean, cocking his head towards the interior of the apartment in invitation, "You should come inside, you have a name?"

[outintheopen]

Scott couldn't help a frown. "I'm... just here to help you," he replied after a moment. He had certain rules he had to follow, certainly, but he wasn't about to be strict as all that.

As he stepped inside, he gave a polite nod of his head. "I'm Scott Hunter."

[doesnotblush]

"Ilya Rozanov. You already know this." It wasn't a question, he didn't think there was even a remote chance that they wouldn't have told Scott who he was being assigned to.

Deciding there was nothing for it except to ask, his first question was: "Have they told you why I need help now?" As opposed to three years earlier when that first attempted pairing had crashed and burned, or any time since then when he'd thought he was doing fine.

He wasn't really sure what kind of answer he was looking for, what kind of answer might convince him that Scott wasn't just there to monitor him, but despite the flat tone and annoyance in his expression, he was actually curious about the answer.

[outintheopen]

He nodded; of course he knew. Ilya was one of the most well-known Guardians, and only partly because he's been unmatched all this time.

The question has him shaking his head. "No, sir. They don't really give us reasons for being assigned to a Warrior or Guardian."

It wasn't their place to ask, just to do as they were told. Because even if they didn't want to, they would be forced to anyway.

[doesnotblush]

There was a grimace, the expression faint and fleeting, at the 'sir', debating quickly just how much trouble he'd get in for refusing the title, but just as quickly determining that it was probably one of the quickest, safest ways to tell just what Scott was reporting back about him, "No. Not 'sir', just Rozanov." He almost added 'maybe Ilya', but held that back at the last moment, they hadn't even known each other five minutes yet, that could wait.

"And have you been assigned before? Or is this new for you, also?" Even as he asked he wasn't sure what he felt about it either way, if only because there were too many variables either way to be able to tell from just that question how careful he was going to have to be to tow the company line when Scott was at hand.

[outintheopen]

A bit surprised by that, Scott nodded. "All right." He wasn't about to argue with whatever the other man felt comfortable with.

"I..." Scott hesitated for a moment. "This is my first assignment, yes. I knew that I was meant to be assigned to a Warrior or Guardian, but I had been on the list for a while."

Shane Hollander | Heated Rivalry | OTA

[fluentinbird]

[Could easily go either way, though I definitely lean towards Warrior, just because of the schedules and the plans and making sure everything is proceeding exactly to specifications.]

Cheshire Cat + American McGee's Alice (and others) + OTA

[gone_mangy]

[A Monster, but a reasonably beneficial one, acts as a Guardian when it suits him to.]

Zepar + OC + OTA

[hurtyourealgood]

[Sure, he's a Monster now, but he used to be a Guardian. He's built a nice little enclave for himself outside of the Cities, rescues the ones he thinks need it and lets them live there where they can be themselves.]

Eddie + Stranger Things + OTA

[jukebox_hero]

[Either role works, though I feel like he got marked later in life than most people. Also A-OK with either/or turned Monster due to circumstances or accident.]

Charles - Dead Boy Detectives - OTA

[just_aces]

[Guardian AF, like yeah he's a fighter, but always in defense of others.]

Gabreel King + OC + OTA

[malecompanion]

[Guardian, and one that's had a contract broken before, not by choice, or, rather, not by his choice.]

Claire Temple | MCU | OTA

[night_nurse]

[Commoner, a medic, but the thing is: she'll treat Monsters the same as she treats anyone else, just as long as they aren't an open threat to her or any of her other patients.]

Klaus + Umbrella Academy + OTA

[ouiking_ouija]

[A Warrior who's lost two Guardians now (first his brother when they were kids and then a lover more recently) and is maybe just a little bit Monster because of it.]

Edwin Payne - Dead Boy Detectives - OTA (M/M for romantic/smut but anything goes for platonic)

[technicallyhellbound]

[Definitely a Warrior, and possibly one who survived/fought his way out of a pit of Monsters, though he was probably the only one of his group to do so (RIP Simon & Co.)]

Steve | Stranger Things | OTA

[the_hair]

[This dude has got Guardian written all over him. His Guardian magic will still 100% befuckinate a monster though.]

Aino Minako/Sailor Venus ♀ Sailor Moon

[vinasu]

Shiny \ Fabulous Killjoys OC \ OTA

[twice_as_shiny]

[She's a member of a group of scavengers living outside the Cities, marks don't matter to them, nor does being nearly a Monster as long as you aren't a danger to yourself or others. What matters to them is who you choose to be.]

Bobby Singer | Supernatural et al | OTA

[unclebobby]

[Retired Warrior living as a commoner, but he's also an archivist, so he's got all the information you could possibly need about whatever type of monster (or other Creature From Outside The Dome) you might be dealing with.]

Hanna + Movie of the same name + OTA

[aptoautmorior]

[Warrior who was raised outside the City, which probably makes her some kind of fugitive, and maybe just a little bit of a monster.]

Iggy | Maximum Ride (Canon divergence & AU) | OTA

[blindbirdboy]

[Guardian, but with gene-splice/selective magical overload Monster parts (wings, in his case). He's also blind, but can feel colors, yes, with his fingers.]

duncan idaho | dune

[heretodie]

[ Warrior, prob, but willing to hear arguments if you want another config. ]

Kim Dan | Jinx | m/m

[drdan]

Korey Moonraker | OC

[futuredirector]

[He fits the Commoner role to a tee. He does have his martial arts skills, so he'll do whatever he can to assist the special ability warriors/guardians in their battles. M/F for shipping, OTA otherwise.]

Lavi | D.Gray-Man [252 spoilers] | ota

[helixofbonds]

[Can see him being either of the first two.]

Angela "Mercy" Ziegler | Overwatch | ota

[merciful_medic]

[ Most definitely a Guardian. ]