#itsharderthanithought

I've wanted to come share this for a while, so please be kind to me…

Let me talk about a specific detail of one of my many projects, Maya. This occurred to me the other day and I went to share it with my cowriter (still considering if I should just write her story on my own) and didn't receive any hype.

What should you know about Maya first, though?

Started in a My Hero Academia roleplay forum.

Working it out as an original story.

Characters have (super)powers.

So, the detail in particular…

It's mostly universe-wise, because the base of it applies for all my stories (all into this universe, the vast majority) and it is that in ✨ Azu's Universes ✨, apart from other details, the birth rate is controlled and, in between some requirements, a person can only have two biological children before presented the possibility of adoption and having a (in female bodies) tube ligation.

With Maya in particularly, the “original” idea was that her mom had the two of her siblings and after the ligation she still got pregnant with Maya. Something that still has probability of happening. My excuse was that there's always a chance the procedure isn't doing to perfection, which is an human error, normal, and totally acceptable. Perfection doesn't exist (try doing the same thing a hundred times, and then a hundred more, there's always a probability of it going just slightly wrong more than once).

The new idea… You will need more details.

Maya's oldest sister, Harumi, is physically similar to their Dad (their mom is physically a rarity and the gens are recessive, so they don't pass on; also, her mom's physical appearance has a lot to do with the mom’s power).

Maya's brother and Maya aren't similar to them. They both have different appearances from their parents, similar between themselves.

So here was the idea:

Dad and Mom had a baby: big oldest sister Harumi.

A person had a baby and, because you have to pass certain requirements to be able to have a baby, something triggers and finds themselves incapable of taking care of him, so Dad and Mom adopt the baby: middle brother Riku.

A few years later (five exactly), person believes themselves in a better place and tries again, but after having baby discovers is still a no-go, so they contact the family that adopted their first baby to find out if they were up to also adopting the second, to keep the siblings together. Dad and Mom adopt the baby: younger child Maya.

The person decides is in no place to really have babies, so stops trying. A family of three becomes a family of five.

And… this new idea even gifts me a new character and backstory I can delve into, more juicy development. But my cowriter didn't feel necessary the complexity.

I dunno, I found it even more interesting and better for my universe way of working. It's my story, right? I can do whatever I feel like. (Yeah, Maya and her story belongs only to me.)