Author's Note

November 2024

I find crossovers that tackle hot media to be very unappealing. They have a few ideas that work, but they usually don't have a direction in mind, which often leads them to write themselves into a corner, resort to reenact a segment almost word for word, or to simply drop the story altogether. They hardly place any forethought on how to blend the source materials and overlook comparable themes they could touch on.

I remember somebody using Izuku Midoriya and Tempest Shadow to play out a "You're being used" scene with Tempest being a blind follower to the Storm King. However, I saw that Tempest would've acted differently if I was at the keyboard.

Would've tied in with Midoriya's quirklessness.

Motivation

That Last Lingering Shred of Hope

An abrupt sway causes Twilight to rebalance herself inside of the suspended cage, "You're doing all of this to get your horn back?"

"The Storm King said he'll return it if I deliver him the kingdom and princesses."

"If he wanted success, he'd given you a new horn before the invasion."

Tempest avoids eye contact.

"He's using you. He has no intention of fixing your horn."

"...he likely is," Tempest agrees without a shift in her expression, "I'm just taking his hollow words like a gullible consumer, but after the many failed leads at restoring my horn, the spanning years that drained away my optimism, and the continuing struggle that whittles away at my confidence with each impaired challenge, believing in his words is the only thing that's tying me to meet the next day."

"You don't mean that."

"When you lose all meaning, you cling onto anything that's promising."