bakerstreet | Sword needs a shield

Sword needs a shield

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Wildcard - Mix and match or choose your own adventure!

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[ From a long line of legendary warriors, bred specifically for this position. ]

[Guardian.]

[ commoner ]

[I'm pretty sure he's a Guardian who may or may not have become a monster, he's got a little settlement of his own, taking in monsters and outcasts alike, they keep to themselves when they can.
I'm not against him being a Warrior who's done the same, and may or may not be monsterized, that's always a possibility.]

[So this is just frighteningly close to canon for him, isn't it? Guardian who gets taken in by a Monster but who still thinks he's doing good for ages until things start to not add up and etc.

I'm just saying I'll run with it, even with alters.]

[Are you kidding me? He's got Guardian written all over him.]

[Either role, possibly from a group/city that has domesticated Monsters as mascots of some kind?]

[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.]

[ What do you say to a Warrior who is walking a real fine line on the Monster side of things who needs his boo-boos patched up? ]

[Heck yeah! She'll be perpetually exasperated at him, but won't turn him away.
I did, sadly, lose track of the netflix serieses at some point (never got to Iron Fist or Defenders) and I know that's not SUPER important in an AU setting, but I don't mind spoilers if they come up.]

There's something wrong with his shoulder. His ribs are probably fractured. There are other places under the suit that throb with pain. He's blocked out the twisted ankle for the rough run, leap, and climb to Claire's apartment. Matt reached her fire escape and slumped heavily against the glass. He knocked on the window and then focused on breathing through the pain.

Just one of the useful things Stick taught him.

If he had a Guardian he could rely on them for healing. If he had a Guardian he wouldn't have to face down Monsters alone. Matt has no bond. No one believes he's a Warrior. Warriors have all their senses. Warriors have a mark. Matt Murdock had none of these things, not since he was nine. But he knew he was a Warrior, just like his dad. That's what kept him going out night after night to protect the people within the city.

He knocked again and called roughly through the glass. "Claire." He could hear her heartbeat. She was in there.

"You know I've got an actual clinic with actual operating hours now, right?" She said by way of greeting even as she slid the window open, offering him an arm for stability if he needed it to climb inside.

The question wasn't even a dig, either, some of her semi-regulars didn't know, since it was a reasonably new development, and some of her other regulars wouldn't be able to make use of it even if they did know, but that was a different issue.

"Please tell me it's just claws and teeth damage this time and no neurotoxic venoms or acidic spit." Not that she didn't have the means and supplies to deal with those, it was just that they were messy and required more precautionary measures on her side.

"There was a really big tree I got thrown into too." Matt smirked a little because he was a bastard. "And you know I can't make regular hours."

He wasn't sure what the government would do if it found a blind man with heightened senses fighting monsters but he didn't think it would be good. Pretending he was like anyone else in the world protected him but he still had to make sure to protect others.

"Something's wrong with my shoulder. I don't think it's dislocated but..." He didn't know what hence his visit to Claire. "Just a quick look and I'll get out of your way."

And disappear back into the night to possibly fight a few more things before he went to sleep. Maybe.

"Tree shouldn't be a problem unless it's one you're allergic to." She replied, dry as ever, just leading him to the kitchen table, "Since we already know you're allergic to blunt-force trauma the same as everyone else, even if you don't act like it."

Matt was one of her few regulars that made her wish she was actually a Guardian, she'd be much more helpful in those cases if she were. As it was she just pulled the first aid kit that was more of a triage cart out of the cabinet she kept it in so it was out of the way, thumping it down on the table and popping it open, starting by pulling gloves on.

"And knowing you, if the socket's not chipped it might have been a partial dislocation and relocation due to impact." A little tilt of her head, "Let's start there, unless something's actively bleeding. Stitches always come first in that case."

Matt pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. A few parts of his body protested. He took a few deep breaths and focused the pain away. He pulled his mask off looking down though he still saw nothing.

"No knives this time." He tilted his head in her direction. "I'll need your help to get the suit off."

Or he could force himself to do it through the pain but Claire usually got made when he did things like that. Matt tried not to make his only medical help mad that often. Not that he succeeded.

She nodded at the statement, already moving in to help with just that even as she commented, "You know there are a lot of people who would tell you that you don't have to get beat half to hell first if you want help with that, you can just ask."

A little tilt of her head, amusement catching at the corner of her mouth and running under her tone as she added, "I'm not one of those people, but they're out there." That said she was right back to being a medical professional, "Good arm out first, better range of movement, bad arm out second, I'll be able to get a better idea of what's going on by how much it can or can't move." More than that, what angles or rotations it got hung up on, which was equally important in figuring out what had happened.

That was actually something Matt had come to appreciate about Claire. They might have been something but in the end it wouldn't have worked and using her as his doctor would've been awkward. This was better for both of them.

He groaned a little as he shrugged out of the suit with his good arm and then took a deep breath and braced himself for the pain of easing his other arm out. His shoulder was not happy about it and protested loudly. A shiver worked through his body as he eased his arm the rest of the way out with Claire's help.

"I'll try not to pretend it doesn't hurt."

Because they both knew he did that. Often. Repeatedly. He was a terrible patient.

"Thank you, I appreciate it when you don't make my job harder than it has to be." Mostly because it meant she could treat him for what was actually wrong and not what he hoped was wrong.

She set one hand gently against the elbow of his injured arm, not quite supporting it, but under it all the same, "Try shrugging first, just lift your shoulder, easiest way to make sure everything's still connected where it should be. Probably also going to hurt like hell just because of swelling even if there's not anything currently out of place."

There hadn't been any grinding when getting his arm out of the sleeve, which meant that it probably wasn't a chipped socket or any kind of displaced ligament that would make for bone-on-bone pressure.

Matt took a deep breath which actually raised his shoulders pretty well on its own. Then he shrugged. He didn't even have the energy for a faux innocent expression. It hurt but he was able to do it.

"Don't hear any grinding," he said, voice tight with pain. His own body was just as easy to listen to as another person's. He didn't hear the groan and creak of old wood from his shoulder. Or the crunch of gravel when there were a lot of little breaks.

But the shoulder burned and ached and he really didn't like moving it. Maybe Claire's first guess about the shoulder getting popped back in was right. Or maybe it was in wrong? It felt wrong but Matt wasn't a medical expert.

If he'd been anyone else she wouldn't even have made the suggestion, but she'd seen him in action before, and if it was going to happen to anyone it would be him. She nodded at his statement, actually taking hold of his elbow then to keep him still while she applied gentle pressure around the joint with her other hand.

It wasn't a palpation but still something like it, mostly just to see if she could feel anything noticeably torn or separated, but mostly it was just swollen, which could go either way, "Was it just the impact with the tree that caused the shoulder pain or did something happen before that?"

A curious little sound followed, gently releasing his elbow and asking: "Try holding your arm straight across your chest for me? Like you're going to hold onto your other shoulder."

"The monster used my arm to throw me into the tree." Matt could feel the bruises from where the monster grabbed him. They probably stand out in darkening blue to Claire. "It was grab and throw and I twisted in midair to take the hit better but didn't twist enough."

He stretched his arm across his chest, breathing slow and deep through the burn in his muscles. Again, he was able to do it but his shoulder wasn't happy about it. That was probably his Catholic pain tolerance. Matt could take a hell of a beating and come back swinging. Murdocks did not stay down.

"He had started to lose himself," he explained though Claire probably didn't care much about the monsters he fought. "He would've attacked anyone who got in his way tonight."

She nodded at the explanation even as she put a hand under his elbow to support it, though she used her other hand to push against it, up and in, the pop was just barely audible to her, but she knew Matt would be able to hear it and feel it, hopefully followed by some relief, "I was half right. Didn't get fully dislocated and hitting the tree just jammed it partway back into place." She ran gentle fingers over his shoulder again, just making sure it was properly settled, "Let me go get you an ice pack for this."

She moved to the freezer, pulling out a gel ice pack, crunching it into a more optimal shape, "Here it comes." Was the warning she gave before setting it into place carefully draped over his shoulder, "Don't suppose I can convince you to take a painkiller? I'm not going to say you need an anti-inflammatory, but it will definitely help with the swelling."

The pop was more a snap in Matt's ears and there was a flash of pain as the shoulder resettled. Then it ached but the sharp pain each time he moved his shoulder was gone. Matt rolled the shoulder to be sure it was back in place and then he breathed out.

"Thank you." He listened to her walk and return. He could feel the cold when she was half-way back to him, long before she draped it over his shoulder. He winced at the sharp sting before he pushed it out of his mind.

"How strong of a painkiller?" he asked, one corner of his mouth tilted up in a half-smile. "I have to get home."

And he'll do that by the rooftops like always.

"Not strong enough to put you out, but strong enough you should probably wait until you get home to take it, since I know your usual kind of route." Not the exact path, but that it was likely to involve many more roofs and fire escapes than most people's would, and she wasn't likely to be able to talk him out of it even with a recently re-located arm.

"And strong enough that you should make sure you have time for a minimum six hours of sleep, unless you don't mind day-job people worrying about possible concussion. It won't make you stupid, but it will definitely slow you the hell down."

"What time is it?" Matt didn't wear his watch at night. He tended to guess time based on his own level of tiredness and the sounds of the city. Realistically he could probably use six hours of sleep but there was work and court to prepare for.

Six hours was a lot of time for him to rest and he didn't want to let his partners down again. He'd done that too much times recently.

"What are my chances on aspirin and four hours of sleep?"

"Not quite 1:30." Which she only knew because she'd checked when she'd gone to grab the ice pack.

She tilted her head from side to side at the question, as if having to weigh that out, knowing that even though he couldn't actually see it he'd have a reasonably good idea what it was she was doing, "You'll still be sore, but probably functional." Which she knew was sometimes the best he could hope for.

"And as long as you're not throwing punches or carrying anything more than about five pounds with that arm for the next few days, you'll probably be fine." That second one, she knew, would be easier than the first.

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

( warrior! )

[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.]

[She comes from a family line of Warriors, but she's living as a commoner, doing weapon-smithing and armor-work, which has obviously led to plenty of rumors, which she mostly ignores. She's content doing what she does, as there's a measure of freedom in it that there isn't in being a Warrior.]

[Oh 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.]

( any interest in a mutable protagonist? I'm thinking Hen's a Warrior who somehow ran across Zepar. )

[Not totally sure what a 'mutable protagonist' is, but I'm down for all sorts of things. Cities have probably put a bounty on him for various reasons, mostly boiling down to 'starting an army' even though that's definitely not what he's doing.

But also: word can definitely have gotten out among Warriors and Guardians who don't like how the cities are being run or who have been exiled or that kind of thing, that there's a safe place to go if they can make it through the wastes/no man's land to get there.]

[Probably a Warrior, but maybe just an offensive-line Guardian. I feel like the lab kids were all cross-trained regardless of mark (or were all double-marked somehow?) I also love the idea that the Monsters might not just share an evolutionary ancestor, but might be a Warrior or Guardian whose magic went wrong. (Lookin' at you Vecna)]

[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 and sent to the nearest city for evaluation & pairing off.]

[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 for a while.]

[Warrior by chance. His powers developed due to external sorces by accident (such as cosmic radiation), before that he was a Commoner.]

Edited 2023-05-08 08:04 (UTC)

[Warrior. Possibly the son of a Monster.]

((Could be either a Guardian or a Warrior, depending.))

[ As Matt Murdock he comes across as a boring old commoner because no way would a Warrior be blind, right? But he's definitely a Warrior and lets it out as Daredevil, though he's walking a very fine line in not becoming a Monster. ]

[Last of a clan of poison masters, and if you think this fluff could be a warrior you're hilarious.]

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Sword needs a shield

paul atreides | dune (2021)

Wen Qing | The Untamed

Hob Gadling | Sandman (Netflix)

Boba Fett | The starwar | OTA

Steven &/or Marc | Moon Knight | OTA

Steve Harrington + Stranger Things + OTA

Layla | Moon Knight | OTA

Claire Temple | MCU | OTA

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let me know if you want anything changed

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Gabreel King | OC | OTA

serval ⚡ honkai: star rail

Eddie Munson | Stranger Things | OTA

Adelia Van Helsing + OC + OTA

Zepar | Fallen Angel OC | OTA

Re: Zepar | Fallen Angel OC | OTA

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El | Weird Stuff Happens: The Series | OTA

Techie | Dredd | OTA

Chrissy Cunningham | Stranger Things | OTA

Johnny Storm | The Fantastic Four

Leifr | Pathfinder OC | M/M

Peter Quill | MCU | M/M (haven't seen GOTG3)

Matt Murdock | Marvel Television

YunXi | Legend of YunXi | M/F