☆A Stargazing☆ ☆Sweet☆

All of them. At the same time. All the time. Like instead of those being their powered up forms that's just. Them normally.

And they keep balance and stuff ofc but their balance is far less subtle than in canon

And the only way I can think to explain that is in terms of waves (and yes I did draw these SPECIFICALLY for this. Ignore anywehere it's wonky, the curved line tool is my opp)

This would be the normal flow of life energy n stuff. I forgot wave terminology (because i haven't take a phsyics-related course in 3 years) but the ups and downs are equal. Its balanced, and the waves are low amplitude (mwehehe I remember that one) so the actions needed to maintain this flow are smaller.

However this would be the flow in this thing I've come up with

Its still balanced, the highs and lows are still equal. But because the waves are so much bigger, more is needed to maintain it. Thats where our guardians come in. They're at high power all the time, and frequently exercise their power to maintain this high maintenance balance.

To the mortals however, this is incredibly intimidating. The weather is crazy, the seas are rough, and Witches forbid you wanna visit Dragon's Valley. They don't like it all that much. So, they devise a plan to put an end to it (cuz they're stupid). Debating whether or not war is their first plan (ends horribly, of course) but either way, the final solution ends up being created by a small, mysterious group of cookies.

They find a way to manipulate the powers of the Millenial Tree, sealing the others (aside from Moonlight since her powers are dream-related and nobody was too worried about it) with his roots and putting him to sleep.

Whiiiich left Moonlight to stabilize the flow by herself. And she managed for a good few thousand years, but even with her immense power she couldn't do what 7 cookies were doing all by herself forever. (Not to mention she misses the others, she can't even reach them in dreams.) So, she withdrew. Then everything went to shit because oh no who's maintaining the flow of life energy now.

So as the world falls apart, a group of young cookies (don't know who, probably gingergang or someone gingergang-adjacent though) set out to talk to Moonlight. They reach the city and make contact with her, and she tells them that the other guardians need to return to the world or else everyone is literally gonna die.

And the younglings are skeptical because the whole history surrounding the Sealing was basically taught to them in a way that made it sound like the sealing of the Beasts in canon (who don't exist here cuz I don't care enough). Like they were told it was tragedy after tragedy after tragedy and that the cookies that put an end to it were super awesome heroes.

But hey they kinda have to trust Moonlight on this cuz she's all thats left and also everyone is probably gonna die otherwise. So they go to look into only to find out "Oh hey wait that band of cookies literally never told anyone anything about how they did it. Like. Ever." So they don't know how to reverse it.

They also realize "Wait crumbs almost nobody knows where the Sealing Sites (they weren't all together when they got sealed. They were each kinda just minding their own business when they got imprisoned) are because nobody is allowed to talk about them."

Eventually they just decide "ehhhhh we'll figure it out if/when we get there" and set off with what little clues they have to find the Sealing Sites and undo the seal.

This probably doesn't make a lick of sense and is also probably completely not canon compliant in terms of how life energy/the guardians work but ehhhhhhh thats why its fanFICTION

I'll probably (try to) write stuff about this later, and maybe make another blog for the AU (which I'll also do with The Fairycule tm if I ever manage to push out the first goddamn chapter)

Also the wave things in dark colors for anyone on Tumblr light mode (I use dark mode + drew on a dark canvas cuz my lights are off and the white canvas was killing me)