#moiraspawn

Ask me about one of my fanfic's Directors' cuts!

The Director's cut of "Breach" is--my brain just put that whole fic together basically as an AMV set to David Bowie's "Modern Love." You know that one Studio Ghibli music video? It would be coordinated to the music like that. Okay, on a more serious note, though, when I first came up with Aedan as a character, I never actually planned on giving him a redemption arc. Honestly my followers were shipping Reidan before I was--I was hesitant to ship my fankids at all because I was still writing out cutesy stuff for them that focused more on like, how parenthood was affecting their respective guardians. But then I dropped Aedan in there about the same time I was starting to draw Rei as a teenager, starting to write out her 'kit' as a hypothetical Overwatch hero, I was starting to write Marti being mentored by Jack. So the kids were basically slowly tipping into that "next-gen hero" zone when Aedan gets added to the mix.

You can all thank @the-legion for Aedan's whole characterization as we know him now, because Legion pretty much hit me with something like, "It's just I always felt sorry for the Clones in the Clone Wars, and I always liked when they became more than what they were made to be. When they fought against what they had been created for." So for me, that kind of morphed into, "Okay wait, Moira's a perfectionist, and also when you become a parent, you have this drive to make sure your kid has the resources and support you didn't--what if Moira ends up making someone a lot more sympathetic than herself." It's so funny though--literally my first drawing of him interacting with Rei was captioned, "Rei doesn't like him," but I think even then I was kind of subconsciously sympathetic towards Aedan because in that drawing Rei's visibly chewing him out and he's just kind of standing there, taking it, albeit in a broody way. Like my earliest iterations of Aedan kind of had him as more of a mini-Moira, but like, as soon as I started writing fics about his actual clone origins, I was like, "Oh--yeah, actually he's very sympathetic."

So Breach kind of became the culmination of that--and it's also like... I didn't want Aedan's redemption arc to come without incredible loss. You don't choose the right thing to do because it's easy, or even because you like a pretty girl, in the end Reaper summarizes it the most succinctly: Aedan chooses what he chooses because Moira gave him everything she never had.

The loss of Rei's dragon also hooks into that, "No redemption without incredible loss" but also that came from a decision of, "As part of maturing Rei's character, I have to force her to experience life outside of Overwatch so she's not just falling into continuing her parents' fight." It was also to demonstrate that there was no way Aedan crossing over from one side to the other would be clean. He doesn't get to arrive in Overwatch to trumpets and fanfare because Rei's still gone through this incredible trauma. De-powering arcs in comics always stressed me out so bad, or sometimes they would bore me because "you're taking away an important part of this character for angst or to shove them to the side" but actually putting Rei through this showed me their general value. It basically kept Rei and Aedan from automatically plunging into their romance after the redemption arc, forced it to more of a slow burn, and, of course, it gave me a chance to kind of, shape that Genji-esque fierce cheerfulness in Rei by dropping her in Hollywood as a stuntwoman while also giving that part of her character a deeper and more mature dimension. And you see that at the beginning of Dragonback.

The Director's cut of Dragonback is me going, "How many 90's teen coming of age/romcom tropes can I jam into these kids' existential crises?" This fic I think came a lot more quickly because there were a lot of elements that I had kind of established in my head--it's Overwatch's first brush with Andrea, it's Rei getting her dragon back, it's Rei and Aedan finally smooching. These were basically dominos that were set up as far back as Breach, they just needed time to percolate with the whole "Rei in Hollywood" bit. I think writing this fic taught me a lot about writing action scenes--I wanted Faustine to basically be a metal gear boss, I wanted Andrea to be terrifying, and I'm basically writing two simultaneous fight scenes which is basically just Genji trying to get to Rei and Aedan. I also knew I wanted to beat the shit out of Aedan as kind of a reversal of him being the 'hero' back in Breach and to also keep the focus on Rei. It's also partially establishing, "Rei doesn't love Aedan because she's dependent on him, but the seed of this whole thing is the fact that they've irrevocably changed each other." Also she needs to save him because #Feminism. I think like... this fic also really helped solidify the appeal of Rei and Aedan as star-crossed for me. Like, I think one of the things that kind of made me hesitant to ship them was the fear of the whole, "Rival families" cliche--like I think this fic's conclusion basically goes, "There is so much that is out of these kids' hands, so much in play that they never had control of since the day they were born, but they get to have this. They get to make this little space."

Mirror!Moira: *laughs* I'm sorry, I'm just still trying to wrap my mind around the idea that there's a universe where I'm straight.

Aedan: Oh, don't worry, you're still very much not straight.

Mirror!Moira: *pouring tea for both of them* Hm. A universe where I'm willing to carry a child, though? That seems just as unlikely.

Aedan: Oh, you... didn't carry me, either.

Mirror!Moira: *pauses, opens her mouth*

Aedan: And there's no sperm donor.

Mirror!Moira: *closes her mouth*

Aedan: ...well, sometimes you did carry me! In a jar!

Mirror!Moira: *horrified staring*

Aedan: There was a jar full of goo. I was artificially aged 10 years and brainwashed over the course of...3 or 4 years? I think? Like, I think my gestation and fetal development was at a normal pace but as soon as Mum realized my embryo was sustainable--

Mirror!Moira: --sustainable--

Aedan: There were five attempts before me. I am partially composed of normal human cells, and partially composed of what are essentially tiny vampire robots called 'nanites.' The only other people or organisms who share a composition similar to my own in my universe are you, a rabbit, Reyes, Reyes and Morrison's Daughter-Clone who tried to kill me, and a Shoggoth locked in a lab somewhere in the Cordillera Darwin. *sips tea* Who also tried to kill me. Or maybe merge with me. Or eat me. I still don't know. *sips tea again*

Mauga: *watching Aedan get on the Talon dropshit* Awww yeah! We got O'Deorain 2.0 joining us on the trip! Hey--no one crack a window or he'll blow out like a napkin! *laughs at his own joke for 90 seconds straight* Ahhhh your mother loved that one.

Aedan: I severely doubt that.

Mauga: Yeah no, she'd make the exact same face you're making now.

----

[After Aedan finds out he's a clone]

Mauga: *comes across Aedan crying* Hey--woah, what's going on, freckles? Were you listening to the Blackstar album again?

Aedan: *through sobs* Mum was lying to me! My entire life! My childhood isn't real! I don't have a father! She made me in a lab! I'm--I'm not even 14--I'm--I'm just her experiment!

Mauga: Oh. *pause* Huh.

Aedan: 'Huh?' What do you mean 'huh?'

Mauga: You're--you're telling me you didn't already know that?

Aedan: Why would I know that!?

Mauga: I'unno I assumed you heard me talking about Moira carrying you around in that little tank like a creepy fetus purse a bunch of times. I guess you weren't on those missions.

Aedan: Wh--you saw her--carrying me like--?

Mauga: *pulling out his phone* Oh! I think I have a photo of me posing with you like I'm going to chug your tank. Your mom's trying to claw my eyes out. It's hilarious.

-----

[After Aedan defects]

Mauga: Wow.. so... defected, huh?

Aedan: *warily* Yes...

Mauga: >:)

Samir: Ok, roll.

Rajeev: *rolls* 18, Yes!

Samir: Cool, heads or tails?

Rajeev: Uh, heads.

Samir: *lands on tails* Oh, your the bottom.

Rajeev: I'm sorry WHAT?

Samir: Roll for fortitude saving throw of seventeen or higher.

Rajeev: Fortitude!?

Samir: The dragon's member is about... *checks manual* one foot in circumference. It's literally going to rearrange your guts.

Rei: ...there's no way that's in the manual.

Samir: Sure it is.

Rajeev: *rolls dice* ...eleven.

Samir: *tongue click*

Aedan: Wait--can I cast minor illusion on the dragon?

Rei: Oh--! I still have a spell slot! Can I cast mage hand?

Samir: ...You know, you could just cast 'Raise corpse' on Rajeev after and not waste two spell slots jerking the dragon off.

Aedan: Yeah but... If it means saving our teammate.

Rei: All for one and one for all!

Rajeev: Aw, guys...