Fanfic / Aimless

Aimless is a The Legend of Spyro fanfiction written by The Silent Insomniac. It can be read here.

Taking place four years after Malefor's defeat, Joshua Renalia, a typical human gamer in his mid-teens, finds himself lost in the Dragon Realms with nothing but his sleeping clothes, his knowledge of Spyro lore, and a power beyond his understanding. Sounds like one of many of the typical plots combined with the "Post-DOTD template", but the first few chapters makes it clear that things will not be so easy for him.

Cut off from all he knows, the human discovers Spyro's world is alien, unforgiving, brutally shattering his naïve expectations. How long can he live here before going insane? Is there a way back home? Why is he even here?

While the story itself takes place in the ''Legends" continuity, it imports elements from classic trilogy and the Skylanders series, as well as the author incorporating his own takes on them and the various characters.

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Aimless contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Vara's parents are established to be this in their first appearance. Her mother's reaction to her daughter complaining that they made her bags heavy? Slice her face hard enough to make her bleed and knock her to the ground. Her father, Remi, is not much better since he enables the abuse and always takes his mate's side.
• Adaptation Name Change: Slam Bam's real name is Bartholomew here.
• Adaptational Badass: Bianca in the games was a Minion with an F in Evil prior to her Heel–Face Turn, with her spells often backfiring on her. This Bianca is much more competent and capable of holding her own, even managing to fight off the apes attacking a caravan on her own and making it back to Eyria with only a bruise.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Spyro. In canon, he's polite and good-natured towards every non-villainous character he meets and went out of his way to save and instantly forgive Dark Cynder in the first game despite trying to kill him moments prior. Here, he tries to kill Joshua during their first meeting at Infernus' insistence despite Cynder and Sparx trying to talk them down. Even after Joshua's spared, Spyro keeps trying to find every possible angle to prove that the human is evil and outright denies any evidence towards his innocence, even being a dick towards anybody sympathetic to him. It gets to the point where Cynder was forced to attack Spyro to stop him from killing Joshua for the second time, further straining their relationship. This seems to apply only where Joshua is concerned, however, as detailed in Jerkass to One.
• Adaptational Villainy: Bianca again. In canon, she only helped the Sorceress with kidnapping baby dragons because she thought they were needed to save the Forgotten Realms from losing its magic. Once it became clear that the Sorceress actually planned to kill the babies for their wings and become immortal, she promptly defected and allied with Spyro. Here, Bianca is considerably more cold-blooded. She's willing to let villages be raided, something that resulted in numerous deaths including children, and instigate a war between Skylands and the Allied Territories in order to advance her path of truth alongside Cauldra.
• Alternate Universe: Since the fic brings in elements from three continuities, this is bound to happen. Even then, there are notable changes from their source material. For one thing, Submaster Kaos, the Big Bad in Skylanders bent on conquering Skylands, is seemingly aligned with them here.
• Blatant Lies: During the meeting concerning humanity, many of Joshua's claims are filled with half-truths at best or with complete lies at worst. Notably, he says that humanity is very far away when he's from another world entirely and they were secretly spying on them when asked why he has certain information he shouldn't know about.
• Big Bad: The Sorcerous Cauldra is currently the main villain of the fic.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: Partly because the truth would be unbelievable and because all but a few people hate him after what happened at the gates, Joshua's story during the meeting is this. His claims that his species are past the borders of the realms can't be verified because nobody can explore beyond said borders. Same goes for why nobody saw any other humans before him, because he says that they simply remained hidden.
• Cool Sword: Bianca's sword Indibog.
• Deconstruction Fic: The author's note in the first chapter makes it clear that the fic will be this. It explores the realities and consequences of suddenly transported to another world, even if said world is a familiar one:
  • Unlike other fics, Joshua is not able to fight back effectively from the start. He's a teenager with no form of self-defense training and almost gets killed as early as the third chapter, with only his newfound powers saving him.
  • Joshua is transported to the world of his favorite game and goes to visit his favorite heroes, Spyro and Cynder. He and Kilat eventually reach Warfang and make their way to enter the city, with Joshua thinking that his childhood icons are just within reach...only to be stopped by hostile guards, mistaking him to be an ape. Despite his attempts to explain himself, they assume him to be working for Malefor and try to kill him. It doesn't end well for either side and Joshua is barely spared. As Cynder explains after the fact, the war is still fresh on many minds and Warfang is heavily guarded, so Joshua would've been detained or killed sooner or later even if he managed to sneak in.
  • Humans don't exist in the Realms and since Joshua wasn't transformed into a dragon when he gets transported, people are suspicious and wary of him, with many assuming him to be an ape. When his existence becomes public knowledge, it attracts the attention of many people curious about his species and origins, especially those that know about humanity not existing in the Realms like Mistress Cauldra, Bianca, and the Portal Masters.
  • The fact that Spyro's world is set in the medieval ages isn't ignored here. After Joshua's clothes get destroyed, he's donated some old clothes to cover himself...which are covered with filtered dragon urine since it works as a strong disinfectant. He reacts to this like you'd expect, but he relents when Corvold reminds him that it's urine-covered clothes or being butt naked. Things don't get much better when he gets the job of manual scavenger, something that details cleaning up urine and feces.
• Doorstopper: Aimless currently has fifty-five chapters and is clocking in at over 500,000 words. The author has around fifteen story arcs planned out to varying degrees, with the most recent December Cliffs arc being the third one.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted for Joshua after what happened at the gates of Warfang. Many of the natives are not exactly fond of the guy who killed 60 people, to put it lightly.
  • The aversion also applies to Cynder for her actions while she was under Malefor's control as the infamous Terror of the Skies. So much so that a few of the dragon guards, one of them being Rimeer, schemed to kill her despite all of her efforts to atone. Kilat attacks her as well and only barely tolerates her afterwards at Joshua's behest.
• Everyone Has Standards: Bianca disapproves of Altai viewing Grayscales as a lesser species.
• Fantastic Racism: Joshua is a human who, to various people, looks like an ape. The apes were in league with an evil dragon who almost destroyed the world. Do the math on how many people feel about him at first glance.
• From Bad to Worse: The Gates of Warfang arc in a nutshell. Joshua and his adoptive little sister, Kilat, arrive at the gates but the guards refuse to let Joshua in since he is an ape. From here, the dragon's hatred against apes and a bit of hysteria set in, with even Kilat (who is a dragon) being denied as the guards claim she is 'corrupted' or brainwashed by Joshua. A fight eventually breaks out, which is made worse by an asshole guardian apprentice showing up and eventually hitting Kilat when she defends Joshua. This in turn further escalates the fight when Joshua's powers activate on instinct but he loses control and kills the apprentice and various others in the crossfire. This is without taking into account how the fighting escalated even more when Spyro and Cynder arrived and fought Joshua and Kilat (Kilat hates Cynder for killing her family as the Terror of the skies, and Spyro is racist against apes). Gets even worse once the Warfang guard arrives but a guard, Rimeer, who has a vendetta against Cynder tries to order her killed during the battle, which only makes the fighting even worse. The fight devolves into a *Mêlée à Trois which sees many people, including guards and civilians, killed in the crossfire as Joshua's powers act up and he can't fully control them due to his anger at Kilat being attacked. By the end of it, about 60 are dead.
• Had to Be Sharp: The main reason that this Bianca is stronger and smarter than the canon one, is that this world is more dangerous than the classic series.
• The Homeward Journey: Joshua's overall goal is to figure out a way to get back home. One of the snip categories is even called "The Journey Home."
• How We Got Here: The first chapter opens with Joshua freaking out over what he did to Spyro and getting attacked by a furious Cynder. The second half of it and the subsequent fourteen chapters explains how Joshua got to that point.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Bianca believes that, as a Magus, she can't have friends, as she fears her enemies will go after them.
• Jerkass to One: Spyro as shown in Adaptational Jerkass above. His jerkassery only seem really pop up if it involves Joshua. Around other people, like when he's teaching in Alona Hall, he's more-or-less his canon self as long as the subject doesn't get brought up. This gets explained in the December Cliffs arc. When Jayce asks Spyro why he's treating an ape he met mere minutes ago better than the human, he takes some time to think and confesses that he doesn't know why, admitting that the various arguments in his defense are valid ones that he can't counter. Whenever he's around Joshua, Spyro gets an immensely strong feeling that he doesn't belong in the Realms and a calamity might happen the longer the human is in the Realms.
• Long-Range Fighter: Bianca herself notes, that like any mage, she prefers fighting at a distance.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Apes are widely known to be evil thanks to being in league with Malefor and utterly despise dragons, seeking their destruction. Jayce Bladelizard is an ape who used to feel the same way until he was ordered to smash dragon eggs, something he was hated doing and only went along with it lest he get killed for refusing. When he saw an opportunity to save one of them, he took it and hid the egg in a safe spot. That one act ultimately changed his heart and it motivated him to desert the army after one too many atrocities, eventually settling down in Eyria.
• Named by the Adaptation: The Sorceress in the games was just referred to by the title of, well, the Sorceress. Here, she's named Cauldra.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: After the events at the gates of Warfang, Joshua is given the nickname of Dragonbane.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: A trope that is unironically still followed despite the author's claims of making the fic as realistic as possible. When it comes to Joshua, you're either with him or against him. Anybody in the latter camp, regardless of justification, is beaten down either by words or physical force until they eventually come around. For instance, Korahnir, whose father was killed by Joshua at the gate, is treated as in the wrong for having a grudge against him for it.
• Rabbit Magician: Biancia is one, like canon, and is much better at it here.
• Squee: Joshua admitted to being tempted to do this after meeting Spyro and Cynder for the first time.
• Took a Level in Kindness: While Spyro is beginning to show signs of this towards Joshua in the December Cliffs arc, the Chasing Leads oneshot, which takes place five years in the future, has this trope come into play and even then, it's downplayed. He's still an asshole towards the human, but they can at least hold a civil conversation and Spyro isn't wishing for his death now.
• Undying Loyalty: Kilat to Joshua after he saves her life.
• You're Insane!: After Joshua rejects Submaster Kaos offer to join him, Spyro, during a rare moment of civility, asks why. He calls him crazy in astonishment after the human says being with his heroes is all he ever wanted since he's been treating him like shit.