Snowflake Challenge #8: WIPs

[dealer_of_aus_666]

Snowflake Challenge #8 is to talk about some WIPs you have, of any kind, fic or not. Since I'm a fic writer, I'll talk about my fic WIPs for this challenge:

• The Eldritch Rei AU (for Boku no Hero Academia) I mentioned in some earlier posts, including my goals one. This is my biggest current WIP: a series that includes at least three multi-chapter works, each set at a different time and focusing on a different set of characters. The basic premise is this: Himura Rei, aka Todoroki Rei, is not a human, but a deity, an incarnation of the universe, with power and knowledge beyond the comprehension of mortal minds; all of her children, though half-human, have some of the same power/knowledge/incomprehensibility (although specifics vary by child); and these changes make massive ripple effect changes across the world of BnHA.
  • The first story I started working on, and the last chronologically, is set to start at the start of canon and focuses on Bakugo Katsuki and Shinsou Hitoshi as main characters, with parallel character arcs; their respective Todorokis are Shouto and Himiko. (Yes, in canon she's Toga Himiko; however, in this AU because of Touya/Dabi Shenanigans(TM), she got adopted into the Todoroki family as a kid.) The main arc is Katsuki's character arc as Shouto very gently but firmly makes friends with him over several attempts and as Katsuki gets familiar with/used to Todoroki weirdness. Hitoshi has a similar character arc with Himiko, with the added component of "I want to get into the Hero Course".
  • There is/used to be a planned arc with Shigaraki Tomura as well, who gets mildly kidnapped by Touya during the USJ attack and then rescued by Natsuo, and while I still plan on that happening in the AU, I'm not sure I could fit his arc into the story and have its conclusion resonate meaningfully with the conclusions of Bakugo and Shinsou's arcs. I might split his arc into its own work, or keep it in; I'm not sure yet.
  • The second story I came up with, and the second chronologically, is set a few years before canon--specifically, some months before Eri shows up at the Hassaikai base--and focuses on Chisaki Kai, who, like Shigaraki after him, gets kidnapped by Dabi. (Although the motives are different--with Shigaraki, it's because Touya was mad someone was trying to hurt his little brother, while with Chisaki it's because he's hyperfixating.) The story follows Chisaki's attempts to survive and escape Touya's domain, a specific patch of time and space outside of normal reality that's modeled after deep sea trenches--high walls of craggy black stone, very little light save from floating bioluminescent fish, and constant, intense, bone-numbing cold--with a side of other Hassaikai characters managing (or not) their leader's absence.
  • I want to mention here that Chisaki develops magical/eldritch abilities of his own over the course of this story. While the Todoroki kids each have their own sea motif, Chisaki in my mind has the motif of a black hole, because he soaks up/devours any ambient power and makes it his own. This is the main reason why he's able to survive Dabi's domain...and why he comes back Different.
  • This is probably the story that needs the most reworking, because when I came up with the plot I shipped Dabihaul and I've since fallen out of love with that ship. The general plot is staying the same but if I want to take the Dabihaul out to my satisfaction I've got to change a lot of bigger details.
  • Though Chisaki and Dabi might still end up with strong 'bitterly divorced' energy.
  • The third story I came up with, and the first chronologically, takes place all the way back when Enji and Rei first get married, following Enji in the early weeks/months/years of marriage as he slowly realizes just what Rei is, and his character arc from how he was in canon at that time to the much kinder and family-oriented man he is in the other two stories.
  • There are other ideas for this series that I want to play with, including several oneshots (like the time they adopted Himiko) or a possible/probably multichapter story for Fuyumi, since she's the only one not yet represented here and I want to give her some love, although Fuyumi's multichapter would take place outside of canon's settings, at her workplace, and probably involve a lot of OCs.
• Then there's my current Monthly Short Piece, which is for Fuga: Melodies of Steel and follows Colonel Pretzel into the afterlife right after his death. That one's going to be highly contemplative, much like driving home in the dark, and explore a lot of headcanons surrounding him.
  • I'd have loved for this MSP to be one of the at-least-two with more than one draft, according to the goals I set for the Snowflake Challenge, but given that it's mid-month, school is going to ramp up again, and I don't even have the first draft done, it doesn't look like this MSP will make it to two whole drafts.
• It's getting late, so the last one I'm going to talk about here is a rewrite of an older MSP, Wild Magic, that I feel like could be a lot better. Well. Almost all of my MSPs could be a lot better, but this one in particular is an idea that I really really like and that I feel I didn't do justice with its current story. It's a historical/medieval fantasy type setting, and it stars a very angry (and very trans) teenage Eri trying to puzzle out some family secrets. Which isn't a very popular idea--the current posted version of Wild Magic has 61 hits, 5 kudos, and 0 comments--but it's still an idea that I love and want to revisit.

Those are the main WIPs I wanna talk about (not counting And the Universe Said "I Guess We're Doing This the Hard Way that I wrote for the 2023 Natshig Big Bang and have yet to finish). Man, sometimes I really really wish college wasn't nearly so time-intensive, or that I didn't have ADHD so I'd have the dopamine to do everything (but if I didn't have ADHD, I wouldn't be nearly so original or creative as I am), but ah well, such is life. Still, these are exciting WIPs, I think, and I hope you agree, dear reader.