when things break bad...

[ldfsh]

Bad End AU Meme

Sometimes you want a fix-it AU. You want everyone to live, to be happy, to find love, so on and so forth. You want the bad guy to lose early, for victory and triumph. Those are great things. Those are happy things. But sometimes terrible things happen to good people and you want to get catharsis through making some characters suffer. We understand. We really do. Sometimes no one wins. Sometimes the villain wins. Sometimes even if the heroes win everything is for naught. Sometimes, things just don't end happily.

• Top level your character. Include any details you might think are relevant. Or don't. As always, we're not the cops.
  
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Momo Yaoyorozu | My Hero Academia | villain-ish AU

[sakusei]

[ AU details here. TLDR: This Momo was transported into a post-apocalyptic alternate reality/timeline by a villain, and in the process her quirk was mutated so she can use other people's bodies to fuel her creations. She joined up with a faction trying to survive, and over the course of ten years in this dystopian world, abandoned her hero identity as Creati, and became Thesis, a high ranking lieutenant in her faction, creating weapons for her faction's paramilitary, and leaving countless bone-thin bodies in her wake.

Happy to either play in this alternate timeline, or in canon timeline after someone finds a way to pull her back from the AU reality. ]

As discussed

[banbutsu]

[ Ugh! Today was the worst!

[ ...

[ That was a little bit overly dramatic, but Momo was feeling more than a little frustrated and embarassed. She had known that she was approaching the end of her current notebook, she had made a point to buy more so that she wouldn't be left without one during class, and yet she had still managed to sit down at her desk before she realized that she hadn't actually put one of the new notebooks in her backpack. So now, here she was, sprinting across campus to retrieve one before class began while desperately wishing that she had Iida-san's quirk so that she stood a good chance of actually accomplishing that.

[ So, no. Definitely not the worst day, but for someone who wants to set an positive example and who values her academics as much as she does, it's definitely not a good one.

[ But maybe it won't be quite as bad as it could be, because the dorm is already in sight. Yet, as she draws closer, she sees something that causes her pace to slow prematurely: a woman standing in front of Class 1-A's dorm.

[ On it's own, something like that wouldn't be overly concerning ... but U.A. had moved it's student body into on-campus dorms over security concerns, and there hadn't been any sort of announcement about a visitor. ]

Snow White || Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs || OTA

[onebadapple]

It was more than a little surreal to be staring down at her own body, she rested a hand atop Grumpy's head but he did not feel it, too lost in his grief. She went over to each of her dwarfs kneeled down around her body. She watched Dopey shiver when her hand touched his head, he looked up and was seemingly looking right at her, but she knew he couldn't even as she smiled warmly back at him.

He moved his head back to bowing, weeping all anew.

Her animals all saw her, though, each one, bowing their head, reaching out for her. Animals were always more in tune with such things. She rested her hands atop them and they tried to butt into her hand, but there was nothing solid for them to touch, so they merely followed her.

And so... with her goodbyes to each of them, she left. After all, she could not return to her body anymore, she was dead. She thought death would be so much scarier but she felt no fear at all. However, no path to heaven seemed to appear, or worse, a path to hell.

Perhaps because of how she died? She couldn't say. This was something far beyond her understanding, and the forest was peaceful and beautiful.

She began to walk within the forest, a spirit died too young, followed by animals until life and survival tasked them with leaving.

She wasn't sure how time passed.

What was time to the dead?

Her body had eventually decayed. All that was left was a slab of stone overrun by moss and flowers, the gold stolen or stripped away from time and by people who happened upon it in the forest. The etchings of her name became worn down so only a few letters could be barely seen. Her animals came to see her every day, generation after generation. Her days passed in a haze, morning and nights bleeding and blending together, days becoming weeks becoming months becoming years becoming decades becoming a century.

When she came across people in her forest she would watch them walk, if they got lost, she'd show them the way out. She had heard a couple of travelers call the woods haunted, she supposed she was that ghost, she certainly never saw any other in the woods besides herself, and shouldn't a ghost be able to see other ghosts?

Such was the case now.

She didn't think that the person could see her but she had been doing this long enough now that they could likely sense her, she could usually give someone a "feeling" of the right way out of the forest.

"Just this way, here, you're going the wrong way," she offered gently, even though she knew they would not hear her. But she got so lonely.

Balthier | Final Fantasy XII | OTA

[portolan]

Bad ending wishlist (and happy to AU these versions of him and/or au in yours):

-He never fled and is still Ffamran, and has done terrible things as a Judge. Absolutely hates himself.
-Variation of above where he's also in an awful political marriage
-Fran died in the Bahamut but he lived
-Empire won and he's been forced back into a Judge role in proximity to his father
-Venat is influencing him now and he's trying to resist but losing ground every day
-He and Fran fled instead of helping the team, Empire spread, and now the world's a shit hole and he's guilty about it

As Discussed

[helpdesk_hero]

The Wood was as peaceful as it might be on any other day recently. Since the coming and going of the exile Fran and her Hume friends, things had been... Tense. I felt to him as if the Wood had been holding it's breath, as if She knew something was coming and didn't know if the change to be was for food or for ill. The tension had been building in the Wood, building in her children, and yes, building in him to a crescendo that made his hair stand on end.

But he knew that the Woods were calling to him. Perhaps he didn't hear her voice as well as one of the women would, he was only a hunter after all. But even the men could be called by the wood when she needed them. Especially when her need came from the animals of the wood getting destructive.

So here he came, approaching the source of the commotion, only to see a gathering of Diresaurs in a place they did not normally gather. There was someone fallen there, and so something must be done. He ran across the branches of the high roads, the paths of limb and branch used almost solely by the highly solitary male viera hunters and warriors. Once he was in a good position, he got his bow to hand and started launching off shots to drive the creatures apart. Which was not going well. With an annoyed noise he slung the bow over his shoulder, called his spear, and then jumped down to the lower path, his weapon spearing through the back of a Diresaur before he flipped off its back.

"Be gone!" he hissed at the other creatures. "Scatter. Find your paths!"

Maedhros | the silmarillion | ota

[holdshisown]

[Not that cannon isn't a bad enough ending for him, but I'm sure it could have turned out worse. Like:

- He was never rescued from Thangorodrim.
- He was recaptured during the Nirnaeth.
- Something or someone kept him from throwing himself into the chasm of fire. (He'd certainly see it as a bad ending.)
- Morgoth wins the war of wrath.]

[admirability]

[If you'd be interested in another thread, I can provide a Sauron for your bad endings! Let me know if there's a scenario you'd prefer with him.]

Faramir | Lord of the Rings | OTA

[nearamir]

[[Some thoughts for bad ends to canon:
1. Faramir takes the Ring and is corrupted by it.
2. Frodo fails to destroy the Ring and Sauron wins the war, leaving the survivors to try and claw something back from the destruction.
3. The Ring successfully corrupts someone else (Boromir, Aragorn, Frodo, etc) and we play something around the need to defeat them and pick the quest back up.]]

[[ngl I would do terrible things for a "Boromir successfully takes the Ring and returns to Gondor" AU]]

[[Also open to crosscanon/cross-universe stuff. Your canon or mine, just shout!]]

[woundedwinter]

[Okay so first? Great journal name.

I'm a huge Tolkien fan and would gladly AU in this guy as a man of Gondor, or even a formerly captured Dunedain seeking redemption after Mordor broke him.

Desperate battles trying to claw the way back from the abyss are a lot of fun and I'd love to try it out]

G’raha Tia | FFXIV

[crystallinum]

[ ota scenarios! ]

[bloodwhet]

[ Are you open to WoLs? And if so do you have a preference for any of the many, many, many things that could have gone wrong and bad ended the whole thing? Off the top of my head there's the lightwarden thing, the 5.3 soul transfer going wrong, in from the cold gone worse or or ~gestures to the whole of the final days~. Happy to write a starter, just wanted to check in first. ]

Dr. Robotnik | Sonic Movies | OTA

[evilgrows]

[he IS the bad end!! hahahaha robots everywhere!! he has ultimate power forever!! would that just be a good end for him?

of course, you could always go with one of those "awakened something he can't control" kind of scenarios and then it's definitely bad for him.

...ota 21+ if the bad end is more of a spicy bad end.]

Éowyn | Lord of the Rings | OTA

[shieldofrohan]

[[A few options:

- Generic LotR bad end where Sauron wins
- Éowyn somehow gets the Ring and goes full "instead of a Dark Lord you shall have a Queen"
- Bad end for her specifically: the Fellowship never reaches Rohan so Gríma continues to take more and more power and her life just sucks a lot
- Post-canon but without Faramir: she either spirals into suicidality/self-destruction OR Éomer dies and she loses her shit in a rather more outward-facing, violent sort of way. Basically, for the latter I would see her ultimately committing a coup for the throne of Rohan and just giving up on being a good person.

Open to any other ideas too, including cross-canon! Just let me know!]]

honey i'm home (and also blanket cw for violence, noncon, etc)

[wolfeblood]

[ There are songs in the old country for keeping the wolves away - chants and charms to hang upon a wooden door to ward off the lean, prowling ghosts. Revered for their strength, perhaps, because when one man stands before another, respect is more becoming than fear. The strongest of men, of course, wore the gray and silver pelts of the beasts. Fierce hunters did not hesitate at the edge of the woods, wondering what lay inside, waiting. Brave men of hard steel did not shiver when the wolves cried from deep within the dark. The old blood of the oldest northern Houses still boasted names that bled valor; these men did not rely upon charms and prayer to keep the wolves away. It was said that these men, like the beasts in the night, had eyes that flickered and shone like angry fire.

But they are not alone in their bravery; there are others who call to the wolves instead of shunning them. There are others who keen for the wolf's strength instead of cowering before it. There remain those in the world who would drink still of the wolf's blood if it would give them animal power. There are those who see the ravaging wolf and see in its hunger their own.

The warrior-woman across the sea is one, he is told, who does not cower. She has sent for the wolf. She has cried out for blood, and she must know that there can be only one answer. There is only one name that will slake her thirst. His reward will come when the fighting is done; they will be wed when the war is won. Perhaps she thinks this a shrewd bargain: she will preserve her honor until she is certain that the wolves will fight as promised. She will see her enemies brought to ruin before she will go to her knees. On this point he does not argue - let her savor her modesty, if she will. She must know that there will be no fleeing when the fighting is done, no recanting of allegiances made. She must know herself surrounded, no matter how proud her heart may be. She must have felt, like a doe in the woods, his eyes upon her.

And the battle is won, because wolves have no taste for compromise. Their violence, as their hunger, is absolute. The feasting will not be swift and discreet; they will gnaw upon the bones of this victory for as long as they see fit to stay. Blood will continue to flow though the steel has again been sheathed. Their gloating and their revelry is voracious. The wolf's hunger is excruciating, bristling; the eldest Stark son knows that the gods look down in jealousy when the beasts feed. How could they not ache for the same raw pleasures? The savage joys, like the savage butchery, will not be mild.

But there is one death yet to make, though Edoras be theirs; one swing left for the steel before the heavier sword is drawn. Gríma, that is the name which is best spoken like a snarl - this is the man who will die. This is the rat now cornered; this will be Brandon's gift to his bride. As has ever been true in the north, there is no ceremony, or what may pass for it is little: there waits the worm-tongued man to be beheaded, here are gathered those who would watch his head fall, and beside Rohan's new king stands the woman promised. The wolf's blood surges in black anticipation: Brandon is flushed, chest heaving, shamelessly and visibly roused.

Waning light catches on teeth hard and white as fangs, a dogged grin. ]

Will you have his blood slowly or all at once, my wife?

Dorian Storm | Critical Role

[makingmyway]

(( Bad end scenario: Dorian puts on the Circlet of Barbed Vision and becomes the Champion of the Spider Queen ))

eddie munson | stranger things

[thefreak]

[ granted it already is a bad ending for him, but let's make it even worse!

- eddie comes back as a vampire under vecna's control, is forced to fight the party
- a slight twist of the above, he doesn't die but he's slowly being turned into a monster, starts to see visions of vecna trying to corrupt him
- maybe he doesn't die at all, but with the upside down starting to merge with regular hawkins, it's only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. maybe with some post-apocalyptic vibes?
- or maybe he fully dies and exists only as a vision to taunt your character

or feel free to suggest your own! role reversals where the bad ending is for a fellow castmate instead are also encouraged! ]

[bubblegumheart]

[Okay but... how about any of these + Chrissy coming back as some kind of a ghost that Eddie or nobody can see?]

Mirabel Madrigal | Encanto | ota

[nonmagical]

[Mirabel runs away and never returns to the Encanto. The family’s magic never returns.]

Yusuke Kitagawa | Persona 5 | OTA

[dwellsinthedetails]

[Okay but what if the 'took Fauxgor's deal' bad ending?

...what if, as with all proper Phantom Thieves decisions, taking the deal was a unanimous vote and not just up to Joker? So they all know they're only enforcers of a greater will, but at the time they didn't see any other way out of the situation they'd been backed into. And by now, they may not care, since it's one hell of a power trip.

Ship-wise, my kingdom for Haru. Or Joker. ...Or Haru and Joker? (If someone else can provide one, I'm down to try writing the other.) Or most of the rest of the gang, though Futaba will take some work. Otherwise, come one come all.]

Bucky Barnes - MCU - ota

[woundedwinter]

[HYDRA wins and he never gets free. A rag tag group of survivors try and free him to try and tip the scales.

Post FATWS, Bucky snaps and kills Walker and Carter. Back to life on the run]

dean winchester | spn

[venatoris]

[ there’s a canonical bad end for dean, Cas, & everyone in s5e4, The End. Essentially, Dean says No to being the archangel Michael’s vessel (angels need permission, demons don’t, idk I don’t make the rules), and the angels say ok fuck this and leave, leaving Lucifer (in Sam’s body) to slowly destroy the earth, legit just toying with Dean by moving the Colt around, knowing damn well it won’t kill him. Asshole.

tldr; rocks fall, they literally all die. ]

Caleb Widogast | Critical Role

[dirtywizardman]

[Open to a lot of variations on what Caleb's "bad end" could be. Castmates, including cross-campaign, and similar type settings please]

[funguy]

[ things can always get worse, even in the apocalypse. couple quick options:

- joel as a hunter or bandit, here to make everyone's life suck as much as his
- jackson or boston or some handwaved third location under siege
- joel gets bitten by a fungus zombie and has a few hours to live
- your character gets bitten by a fungus zombie
- au where ellie got to decide for herself whether or not to go into that surgery room and she does and everything is terrible for joel ]

Lotor | Voltron | OTA

[alienation]

Dante | DMC 5| For seditiousrose:

[pepperedoni]

[A world in which the younger brother lost their duel and Dante became Mundus' tool. A hell gate ripped open in the center of a sylvan glen, not too far from the capital. Grass boiled and hissed at the presence of the gate and the dark knight Nelo Angelo stepped onto Terra's soil from its interior. The hulking armored figure of a knight with no master left lurched forward and began making his way in a straight line towards the ivory city.

With heavy footsteps, he left dark ichor beneath deep footprints, eyes burning beneath the horned helm covering his face.]

JUST FOR MEEEEE.

[roseofmay]

[Intruder.
Invasion.

Neither of the words were particularly unfamiliar to her. More often than not, they were reserved for beasts. One, perhaps, that was a touch too brazen in arrival. A brave following. Or foolish in the eye of one general that had likely spent far too much time dispatching of so-called intruders.

Her soldiers followed in behind her at a safe distance, though given she had expected little more than an annoying zagnol or something akin to it, perhaps she didn't come with enough. What greeted her and those who lingered behind was not... exactly a beast at all. What it was, she couldn't say. A... knight? Imposing armour. From where, she couldn't say. She'd never seen anything like it, she was certain, and Beatrix had travelled far beyond the gorgeous lands where Alexandria sat.

Lifting a hand, it was a wordless display to the line of lady soldiers that lined up behind her. They were to stay in place. No interference. Not until she more properly assessed the situation. In her other hand, Save the Queen in all of its glory, a faint shine in the blade, as though it was simply waiting to unleash its fury.]

Halt!

[For despite whatever her reputation may have said of her, Beatrix still believed in honour.]

Identify yourself!

[...Although she suspected the knight would be one of few words.]

Higashikata Josuke | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable | OTA

[hairgashikata]

[ AU where, the Joestars don't fight off vampires, but become them instead. No hamon, no stands, just stone masks passed down from generation to generation. ]

Layla El-Faouly | Moon Knight | OTA

[scarabwings]

[The timeline in which the homicidal crocodile goddess could not be put back in the box, and other bad endings.]

Hermes ☿ Hades ☿ OTA

[messageforyou]

[A Bad End for Hermes would probably be one of the following:

He's bound for eternity: For some reason, Zeus and/or Hera decided that he had to go (probably finally got into too much trouble and couldn't get out of it) and now he's like Atlas or Prometheus, trapped carrying the sky or bound up for eternal torment or pushing a boulder or something.

Titans overthrew the Olympians: Somehow the Titans (or maybe Gaia's monster children, or disaffected children of the gods, or what have you) overthrew Olympus, and are hunting down Olympians to kill them or bind them like Titans were bound.

War broke out between the gods after all: Persephone's lie wasn't bought, Demeter figured out that Zeus kidnapped her daughter and Hades hid it (and maybe also found out that Hermes knew all along), and now all the Olympians and the Underworld are at war with each other and it's bloody enough to make the Trojan War look like a playground scuffle. Gods would be trying to outright destroy each other.]

Mairon/Sauron | Tolkien's Legendarium | ota

[admirability]

[I would be happy to play out an evil victorious ending (although that would be the good ending, from his standpoint).

I also love AUs of all kinds. He could be transplanted into other canons, or characters from other canons could be transplanted into his... I'm up for pretty much anything.]

mikey / tokyo revengers

[invinciblemikey]

(bonten/manila timelines!)

rk800 "connor" | detroit become human

[facilitates]

[I'm interested in auing Connor out into other canon bad ends (especially if it involves Horizon Zero Dawn series, Terminator, Jurassic Park, maybe Star Trek? - or any other endings where he'll stay a machine). Basically he's an android who can be trying to save his human in a losing battle or he's an oppressor machine.

Not terribly interested in playing out Detroit Become Human's bad end of basically things going back to the status quo-Connor being deactivated.

Assumed cr preferred, prose preferred but can match format.]

Asuka Kazama | Tekken manga

[fightsforpeace]

[ooc: Good lord, there are a number of endings in Tekken that could be considered bad, so I am open to lots of ideas. One of the villains wins, Asuka gets experimented on to have the devil gene, etc. Just no incest or anything like that. Also manga Asuka is a tad different, or at least has a slightly different plotline than the one in the games.]