Just going through ORAS landmarks and I saw this. Granite Cave’s Japanese name is Stone Cave??? And Steven looks like he’s apologising for something??? And so an AU idea…
…where Steven is actually the ancestral/guardian spirit of the cave in Dewford and also the one who did that cave art as some kind of record; and you’re supposed to reassure him that everything’s fine and guide him on into the afterlife???
IS THAT WHY STEVEN WENT ON SOUL-SEARCHING POST-GAME???? I mean it’s possible that he got bored and went on to be champ, and his signature poke is literally a super-computer…!!! FAVE CONSPIRACY THEORY (well is it really a conspiracy as such but anyway)
This could get such amazing art or fic about it. Steven in his primordial form, which could be anything from a bit of good-looking mist to a full-fledged pseudo-legendary, occupying the cave and making his mark on it. Or it could be kind of like that Lucario movie where the guy they were looking for might as well have been Riley in a previous life or in some kind of sad “history repeating itself” scenario. Either way it would explain the affinity for rocks. Or imagine Steven, or the entity that would come to be known as Steven, just residing in the wild for aeons and then growing weary of being so alone and wanting interaction so he incarnates to make it easier on everyone. But some part of wanting to be one with the caves never goes away, hence the spelunking habit that’s entirely too easy to explain for humans who are used to everyone having that one weird hobby.
And then he meets Wallace who is “only” human” but has been watching over ancient caves as part of his ubpringing for years, studying the lore around them, and Steven takes a good look and goes ohhh this person UNDERSTANDS—
this is why no one should give me ideasHoly crap YES
This really would be a good fic if we’d ever get around to think about it more
That’s exactly why Steven goes along to give the position to no other person than Wallace because he’s the only one to understand!
And this could also be why he gets so frustrated in the Delta episode; he’s like ‘But I thought this was over’ or somethinggAH I’ve been trying to reblog this on and off literally all day. This is the first time Tumblr hasn’t lagged itself into infinity, praised be.
I could so come up with a legit scenario for this fic, or collab on one. The idea isn’t something I likely would have thought of but after seeing your post I neeeeed it to happen. And I already have a merperson Wallace fic lined up (HOW UNEXPECTED HAR HAR), so why not cave spirit Steven. Especially when it would be so easy to spin his canon traits that way!
aaah seriously ANY TAKERS FOR THIS IDEA IT IS EXCELLENT
Imagine the possibilities for their first meeting too:
Steven: hello I’m just another trainer even if I’m good
Wallace: um I’ve read all about cave guardians and your spiritual aura is really noticeable you know
Steven: … [sits there consumed with inescapable first impressions for the rest of the evening]
Or it could be during the battle for the place of champion and then when Wallace lost Steven offers to show him the cave art (Wallace is Sootopolitan; they would introduce him as one so Steven would know).
And then.
Wallace: You drew this, didn’t you?
Steven: What? No, no-
Wallace: Please. I’d know if you’re a cave guardian; Sootopolitans are trained for that.
Steven: *yep, inescapable first impressions*And for some angst(that cannot be missed in AUs), imagine Steven handing over the Champion Cape before finally passing on
Only to come back a couple of years later because he just can’t simply leave like that; that’s stupidThis so needs to be written already! But now I don’t know which of these “getting to know each other” scenarios I prefer lol, THEY’RE BOTH SO GOOD.
There’s just something so cute about putting together age-old spirits together with “ordinary humans” who consistently turn out to be more perceptive than the old spirit, haha. I suppose it’s one of the few ways to write something like this that doesn’t give them a total knowledge imbalance that would potentially make it creepy.
When Steven comes back:
Steven: You remember how I said I can’t handle living in your world anymore and had to go back?
Wallace: …
Steven: Well, turns out I can’t handle my old world without YOU.
Wallace: sTEVEN STONE WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS WHY WOULD YOU PUT ME THROUGH THIS EMOTIONAL WRINGER, HERE HAVE YOUR CAPE BACK AND NEVER GTFO AGAIN
…and this could possibly explain the transition between R/S, Emerald and OR/AS.
[I kind of wish someone like mediocre-latinist would look at this and see if this is the kind of worldbuilding that could strike their fancy…]
Okay I would read this au but I have like 4 fics planned so I don’t currently want to write it. Maybe someday.
Fair enough, I hope it didn’t sound like “OK, YOU INNOCENT BYSTANDER GO WRITE IT”. More like I feel that worldbuilding is more your cup of tea than mine so I thought hey, just take a look, lol. (I do worldbuilding “inasmuch as it adds to characters” and keep it sort of minimalistic if that makes sense? Yeah, the obvious counterargument is that “it always adds to characters”, that’s true. So I’ll emphasize the minimalism.)
Sooo…maybe I should stop procrastinating instead…
Just woke up to this heheh.
But what about his ‘biological dad’ (*air quotations*)? If the Japanese name was Stone Cave then President Stone would’ve been Steven’s DESCENDENT, of all things. Another thing to think about.
It’s possible that at some point between the whole 3000 years of something someone decided to change the name to avoid drawing people’s attention to it. The history of the cave has been taken for GRANITE- *shot*
But what made Steven into the cave spirit he would be? Would it be an ancient version of PokeSpe? Except without the current cast but with other characters? I mean, it’s possible that he would’ve worked as one of the summonses or something.
Personally I’d prefer just sticking to one universe, or ORAS. Putting both RSE and ORAS in one fic might be more confusing than anything.FINALLY TUMBLR LETS ME REBLOG THIS.
Oh good lord, now we’ve hit the “omg I am my own father” territory. When I imagined this AU I had a vision of AU Steven basically materializing out of thin air rather than being “conventionally” born, so for all I know Mr Stone could have adopted him for some reason that could be further explored. Maybe he was a giant fanboy for the cave and adopting Steven as his har har totally just plain human kid was the best thing that ever happened to him. We won’t achieve full consistency with the naming anyway, as Steven’s name in the original isn’t Steven Stone to begin with.
The history of the cave has been taken for GRANITE- *shot*
kjhf WHY YOU
As for how AU Steven was made, I think it would be safe to assume that PLOT TWIST instead he was one of the like founding spirits of Hoenn. I’d like to stick with mostly game-inspired interpretation because the manga honestly adds so many things that aren’t even remotely suggested in the games (it’s not all horrible no, but what canon is it even?).
Yeah, I dunno if it’d work. I mainly suggested it because that continuity goes from Steven -> Wallace -> Steven as the champions, if it WAS a continuity. I’m not sure how to describe it now as it is.
From what you’re saying about the founding spirits of Hoenn… Like those main branches of families in the region, I think? Because if the family’s one of the first to be in Hoenn then they’re more likely to take part in major things like PRAYING FOR THE REGION TO NOT GET BLASTED BY THE WEATHER- okay. Yeah, something like that.
It’s going to be hilarious if Steven was having a conversation with early-adult!Stone Senior and goes like ‘Okay, I need to deal with *insert OR/AS storyline here* so I’ll have to be your kid, adopted or something’ and then Stone Senior goes like okay and pokes the spirit and POOF here’s a spirit-turned-baby or something and SS adopts him.
Probably Steven can go between his spirit form and flesh form, but he needs to be careful about that, so cue the caves!
My interpretation is that RSE and ORAS are literally parallels- i.e. They literally happen alongside each other at the same time, so my brain doesn’t cooperate when it comes to continuity between these two, heheh.
*casual reminder of this AU*
toradbos dump spot 