alt inky | he/they/ze

Big ol' post to organize the AU for new friends who want to get into it! Welcome in!

First off, I'm Inky (or Azalea/Az)! I'm the creator of the AU! I use they/he/ze pronouns.

Here is my strawpage! (it's kinda old. i'm working on updating it to reflect my current interests).

What is HBAN?

HBAN is short for Heroes by Another Name, a Cookie Run Kingdom Swap AU where the starter cookies (Gingerbrave, Strawberry Cookie, Wizard Cookie, Custard Cookie III, and Chili Pepper Cookie) and the ancient heroes (White Lily Cookie, Hollyberry Cookie, Dark Cacao Cookie, Pure Vanilla Cookie, and Golden Cheese Cookie), as it says on the tin, swap places in the story! There are also other swaps and changes in place surrounding that, like The Ultimate Cookie taking Dark Enchantress Cookies place!

The story is primarily written as a fic on Ao3! This link will take you to the series for all the stories currently written.

My works tend to venture into serious/darker topics. HBAN specifically has a Dead Dove tag (which means all tags must be taken seriously) and multiple warnings for Body Horror and Non-Canon Typical Violence.

There is also no shipping in my AU, nothing I'll ever confirm or focus on, anyway. Any relationships are majorly up to audience interpretation. The way I write the relationship between the lilygang/five criminals (the swapped ancients) is as queerplatonic/devoted, and not necessarily romantic.

We currently have: 4 Works, 522k+ words in total (2 major stories, 2 side stories).

The Original Post for this AU can be found here! (Yes, this is my alt account. I've been in battle with Tumblr Support for the past 2 months trying to get back into my main. Send help.)

Tags!

There are multiple tags you'll find for this AU.

hban!au and heroes by another name are the tags you will find on most/all posts regarding the AU.

hban!updates is the tag that I use to let you guys know when I post on ao3!

hban!asks is the tag that all asks pertaining to HBAN will be filed under regardless of the content of the ask. There's lots of talk about lore, scrapped ideas, and character stuff in there!

hban!art is the tag my personal art for this AU is under. I don't often make comics, so most of the art for this story you will find are doodles/wips, designs, or standalone drawings.

hban!fanart is the tag for all other art made by the coolest people ever! This is the tag you can use to post art of my AU that you drew/wrote so I can see and reblog it! You can also tag me directly or send it to my inbox! I'd love to see everything you guys create <33

hban!react is a tag I created for those who want to live react to the story after an anon asked if I was okay with it! I'm perfectly fine with it and I'd love to see what y'all think! My fic is restricted to comments from registered users only, to keep bots out! So, those who dont have AO3 accounts can't share their thoughts, and I want to change that (without inviting bots in...)!

For my AU...

Translations and Podfics: I have been asked about things such as podfics and translations! I don't mind if such things are created as long as the credit to the original work is given. In fact, please tag me in them/link them to me so I can see them! There is a Korean translation of HBAN in the works at the moment by a friend of mine, which will be linked once it's done.

Reposting: I kindly request that my work is NOT reposted anywhere. If you find HBAN anywhere except for Ao3, that is NOT me.

Crossovers: Sure! I love crossovers, esp with other AUs! Tag me in them/link them so I can see! There's actually an amazing crossover fic with the Children of Beasts AU!

Other Stuff?

other tags you will find on my tumblr:

inkyapping is the tag i use for my general posts!

inky fics is the tag i use discussing my other fics (like REDUX and Abyssal Theatre!)

asks:

my inbox is always open to asks, but i may not answer if its something ive already talked about/repeatedly stated or i think it may be strange. other cases where i dont answer is because im thinking about how to answer it without giving away something specific.

I thought it was pretty cool how you described it all, especially with kinsugi, a personal favorite symbolic device of mine. Once again I look forward to what you come up with for the next chapter!

I’m going to be honest that Chekov’s gun allowing us to avoid a whole character death is INSANE. That’s the power of coming into things prepared I guess (saved by the will of Hollyberry). When I saw what happened to GingerBrave’s soul jam to reform it I SCREAMED (To be loved is to be changed 🥹) (Kintsugi method). Also the way Lily finding out what happened at the banquet was so well done but still SO dreadful that it made me squeal at 2 AM. We finally get St. Brave back but we gotta learn about the horrors before he wakes up I guess, sorry Lily 😭.

Question: what would the Lilygang's reaction to a world of full humans (but still smol)...

But during the time of Witches (aka Midevil Europe during 14-1700s?)

imagine you’re a little guy and suddenly there are GIANTS EVERYWHERE???? and some of them resemble your GODS.

On that note, what do you think would happen if your swapped Beasts with put in a room with their closest canon Beast?

(Also, I feel like SM could make a joke over a lack of Knowledge Virtue...)

Question for thee.

If you put your swapped Beast of Decit and Shadow Milk Cookie in a locked room, what do you think would happen?

Okay so. The issue here is that I technically don’t HAVE a Beast of Deceit. So we have two options here.

if we are going with direct swap, my Beast of Despair would Beat The Shit out of him without being prompted. he says a single word and she just jumps him.

To borrow a term from the Spider-Verse movies, the witches' banquet is a canon event for White Lily. No matter the timeline she will always see and react to the events and the inevitable realization that the witches created cookies so they could be eaten. From that point onward, she always walks a dangerous path that ends in her transformation into Dark Enchantress Cookie, whether by dough or by dark magic.

However, the world of HBAN has some... additional variables that throw a proverbial wrench in the gears of fate. For one, Her friends are with her this time, able to support her. The ancients in this world have met at least one of the First cookies personally, and have greater insight into the actions of the witches than just what White Lily could see. And, most importantly of all, White Lily has seen Dark Enchantress, what she will become if (or possibly when) she falls into darkness.

The question then becomes, is it enough? Is her group of friends she is already willing to abandon if it means only she must be hurt enough to get her to tell the truth? Are the ancients, who held the very knowledge she has sought her entire live out of her reach, to be trusted anymore? Is a vision of her fate a wake up call to make different choices, or a doomed prophecy she believes is inevitable? Will the Soul Jam of freedom have a say? Or will it too fall to silence when White Lily loses hope?

This is what I would say is the great crossroad the story had been building to this entire time, and you left it on the most evil cliffhanger you possibly could have. Bravo.

I thought the rest of the chapter was solid too! I know you aren't writing this story with any ships in mind, but the way you write Pure Vanilla and White Lily is just so fun to watch. The game very heavily leans towards this pairing through both symbolism and dialogue, but never gives the two enough time to fully develop before White Lily's death, which is definitely the most tragic aspect of Pure Vanilla's character. But, because the pair in HBAN aren't the sun and moon, destined to only meet briefly in the eclipse, you give them time to interact and show the years they've known each other. But you also write it in a way that it can be seen either way, which I appreciate and fully believe is the right move. It takes skill to do that!

The Hollyberry reveal was an interesting rugpull. I like that you had White Lily stand up to what seems like the only way and offer an alternative, especially because it's an important character moment for Pure Vanilla to show that he full trusts her before her vision of the witches. The fact that she just had the box the whole time kind of stretched my suspension of disbelief though. You mentioned that Hollyberry was told to grab things, but because the chapter where that happens was restricted to White Lily's POV we didn't get to actually see it. I think if you had drawn attention to a weird box that Hollyberry grabbed in OTR it wouldn't have felt so jarring. Though, because Obsidian is still unfinished you could definitely still point it out near the end of that story, making it less jarring for someone reading all the stories in order. It would be really cool if Pure Vanilla knew about it too and was already wondering what he would need to say if White Lily decided to use it. I'm just spitballing though.

Lastly, thank freaking goodness Elder Faerie isn't going to revive someone, hit a beast once, and then just die. I often joke that EFC is a bum but that's only because of how little he actually does between being introduced and just dying in a frankly unsatisfying way. The fact that you've mentioned not wanting to narratively doom him gives me high hopes for how he can continue to be useful throughout the story, even if there's still a chance he dies later. This was also an incredible chance for White Lily using the knowledge she gained for a selfless purpose, something she never really gets in canon, another way that this White Lily might be able to escape her fate.

I have a lot more to say but this ask is already really long. Let's just say I loved this chapter, am excited for the next one, and that I might have some fanart of it coming!

i’m glad you liked it!!! i always say i don’t mind big asks i love reading everyone’s thoughts.

i’m an evil little trickster who likes cliff hangers and this will NAWT be the only time i do this LMAOOOOO.

i can’t dive too deep into a lot of this, but the next chapter is coming soon 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

as for my rug pulling, i think it’s fun to make you guys go back to see where i said something. there is something in obsidian that alludes to the box, but ive kept it purposefully vague for shits and giggles.

i love exploring relationships. there’s something to be said, especially in this community, about the amount of stories that center around a ship and it feels as if the plot is watered down to make room for it. nothing bad against them, i’ve read so many really good fics that have done this, it’s just a personal ick of mine i guess.

so with PV and WL, it’s fun to toe the line and give them time together while still having it be central to the plot.

hollylily kiss in this chapter was purely for me tho there was NOOOOOO damn reason for it to happen other than that i wanted it to.

efc gets to live ! thats all there is to say on the matter :))