"What If?" A powerful question. Both scary and enlightening. For one night, around a warm campfire, one very large and special ohana will dive into this question, and as long as the snacks hold out, they'll discover more about the power of "What if?" Come join them around the campfire to hear some wild answers to "What if?"
— The summary to The Fire of Futures Past
— The summary to The Fire of Futures Past
The Fire of Futures Past
is a Lilo & Stitch Fan Fic written by Euphonemes that takes place after the Grand Finale film of The Series, Leroy & Stitch. Unusually for Lilo & Stitch fanfics taking place after the last movie, this one revolves around the Pelekai 'ohana being together for a special family fun night.
Stitch planned for a nice evening with his family held around a campfire in the backyard, but didn't actually plan for any activities for the 'ohana to do save for a lot of snack-eating, so Lilo suggests that they tell campfire stories about what would've happened if Stitch did not escape to Earth. Many tales about Experiment 626 are told from there, with many family members putting their own interesting spins on what the blue alien who brought the 'ohana together could have been. Their evening will also be interrupted by some familiar guests along the way, especially when Jumba mentions that a certain red creature they've dealt with before has escaped from Galactic Prison.
The "What if?" stories and their storytellers
The storytelling begins in Chapter 2.
- Nani: What if Stitch was an intergalactic superhero?
- Bonnie (X-149): What if 626 was a renegade who stole from the United Galactic Federation?
- Leroy (X-629)note : What if 626 was a successful CEO of a legitimate company he and Jumba started who then falls in love with one of their investors, Angel?
- Gantu: What if 626 got caught by Gantu (in a huge case of Wish-Fulfillment)?
- Slushy (X-523): What if 626 ended up on an ice planet ruled by 523, who was believed to have been long lost?
- Heckler (X-322): What if 626 was a successful pod racer whose career seems to end after he is blinded in an accident?
- Jumba: What if 626 became a giant just after his creation? (It should be noted that this was written well before Stitch & Ai's release.)
- Grand Councilwoman: What if—nah, she doesn't tell one. Cobra Bubbles instead tells a story about "What if 626 was forced to work for the Galactic Federation for his freedom by hunting down X-629?"
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Aliens Speaking English: A given considering that this is a Lilo & Stitch fanfic. However, this is subverted for Slushy, who does understand some English, but still primarily speaks in Tantalog and is unable to speak in any other language. Jumba translates the icy experiment's story to English for the humans in- and out-of-universe.
- Ascended Extra:
- Bonnie gets a lot of dialogue in this fic, more than in her three episodes in The Series combined. She is even the second person and first experiment to tell a campfire story. Nani, who tells the night's first story, even uses the thieving experiment as the villain of her story.
- Heckler also gets some more dialogue than in his single episode in The Series, and also tells the sixth story of the night.
- Leroy is this as well considering that he really was just a flat character in the film that bears his name, while in this story he truly becomes the focus of the main plot.
- Big Eaters: Boy, do the experiments eat a lot of snacks...
- Call-Back: Nani's story is based on the "Super Stitch" moment seen in the ending montage of the first film. She even puts on the same red blanket as a cape and a lacy bra as a headpiece (she couldn't find the exact one he used before).
- Cool Versus Awesome: Jumba's story has Kaiju!626 fight against Robo-Pleakley.
- Cliffhanger: Every chapter ends on one of these, with a character saying something that sets up the next chapter.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Played With; in chapter six, Lilo lies to Nani about forgetting to get ice to keep the meat fresh, claiming that the ice was stolen by "werewolf ninjas". After Slushy's story in that chapter, they actually show up. In actuality, they're the elite military personnel that responded to Cobra's call earlier. They have large beards and hide in the darkness."See, Nani, I told you!" She pointed accusatorially at the man's beard. "Werewolf ninjas!"
- Damned by Faint Praise: When Gantu asks Nani what she thought of his story, she replies, "It was... hmm... a novel approach. Something, er, unexpected."
- Dead Fic: Last updated in April 2016, but the author would abandon it in favor of writing Zootopia fics since. He last updated one of his stories on FanFiction.Net in May 2018.
- Demoted to Extra: Bonnie's partner Clyde (150) has only received brief mentions so far with no dialogue. A reviewer called out the author on this and gave a suggestion for a story from the experiment, so this could change.
- Evil Is Cool: Bonnie's response to being the villain of Nani's story is just the third word. She likes the idea of being the bad guy so much that she impatiently gets Nani to skip to the climax.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The main story takes place over the course of just one night.
- Foreshadowing:
- Bonnie causes the other experiments to shout in anger when she adds Gantu to her story. Later in the fic itself, the experiments are sent into a panic when Gantu himself crashes the party.
- Heckler was next in line to tell a story when Gantu arrived, but he decides to relinquish the spot to the big guy for the moment. He would get around to telling his tale a couple chapters later.
- When Leroy arrives and gets settled down, Cobra briefly goes into the Pelekai house to make a phone call. The respondents to his call arrive shortly after Slushy's story.
- Green-Eyed Monster: This fic explains that for some unknown reason, Gantu has never been able to let go of his hatred for Stitch and has tried to exact vengeance on him. Thus, Gantu got fired from his position as captain again sometime before the events of this fic as a result.
- Heel–Face Turn: Leroy, who seems to have taken a very hard crash landing, gets convinced by Lilo to tell a rather romantic love story about Stitch and Angel. From there, Leroy starts to care about the ʻohana, and they actually grow concerned for him. The main story shifts to the ʻohana trying to prove to the Grand Councilwoman that Leroy has redeemed himself and should stay with them on Earth.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue":
- Gantu's story, where he imagines himself as "Supreme Commander" of the Galactic Federation finally capturing 626. The ʻohana really love this tale he spins.
- To a lesser extent, Slushy's story as well, what with being the king of an ice planet and whatnot. His more effective storytelling makes up for it, however.
- Just Like Robin Hood: 626 turns out to be this at the end of Bonnie's story.
- Manipulative Bitch: Bonnie in both Nani's story and the main story.
- Experiment 149 in Nani's story almost sweet-talks Super Stitch into doing a Face–Heel Turn.
- When Stitch steals her sandwich to feed Angel, Bonnie takes advantage of it by having Stitch convince Reuben to make her the next storyteller as a means of paying her back for the snack.
- Out of Character:
- Averted; the author actually goes to great lengths into making sure that the characters are portrayed as if this story is an official continuation of the franchise post-Leroy & Stitch, and those that don't have fully-developed personalities in the official works (i.e. a good number of the experiments) are given believable characterizations.
- There are a couple minor OoC issues, however. One is that the Grand Councilwoman calls Stitch "Experiment 626" when she's actually been calling him "Stitch" in the franchise ever since the end of the original film. The other is that when Lilo gets scared after the "werewolf ninjas" disrupt the party, hugs Stitch for comfort... and in a brief Out-of-Character Moment, she rapidly tells him how she's glad that he's not hurt, praises him for how brave he is, and thanks him for protecting her and the ʻohana. Although that reaction is realistic of typical young girls in such situations, Lilo—who is anything but typical—would not ever do the Motor Mouth part like in this story, and she already knows how bulletproof and brave her best friend is, so she wouldn't actually be that terribly concerned for Stitch's safety then.
- Running Gag: In Heckler's story, he often remarks on how his in-story self is thirsty for a soda.
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Schedule Slip: The story was updated on a monthly basis, but the author missed March 2016 and uploaded the ninth chapter in April. It hasn't been updated since, especially when the author became dedicated to a Zootopia fic he started later that same month. He has been doing nothing but Zootopia fics ever since, despite stating at one point that he would eventually return to The Fire of Futures Past, and later has gone into hiatus due to his personal life getting in the way. - Self-Insert Fic: In-Universe; Gantu, Slushy, Heckler, and Jumba involve themselves in some form in their stories. The latter three actually do this decently well, but definitely not the first one.
- Series Continuity Error: For some reason, the Grand Councilwoman calls Stitch "Experiment 626" again in this fic, even though she stopped doing so in the official continuity since the end of the original film.
- Shout-Out: The title is a reference to X-Men: Days of Future Past.
- Sickeningly Sweet: In-Universe, Bonnie finds Leroy's love story to be too sweet for its own good."Blech!" spat Bonnie. "Ugh, come on! That was so... treacly. Yuck, feel like I need to scrape off all that sugar and honey..." she trailed off while swinging a leg over her log. She made a show of scratching at her green fur, rubbing off the happiness of Leroy's ending.
- Sophisticated as Hell:
- During Nani's story when she acts out the Grand Councilwoman telling "Super Stitch" about Experiment 149, Bonnie interrupts questioning and then approving how she is the bad guy of the story. After the brief outburst, Nani resumes her story with the Grand Councilwoman saying how 149 is "totally cool with being the bad guy, and doing bad guy things".
- When Leroy begins telling his story, he shifts to speaking very eloquently, impressing Bonnie. Then he speaks like a juvenile for a moment (a side effect from his crash landing) before resuming the formal tone.
- Tranquil Fury: Stitch gives a Death Glare to Leroy when the latter acts out CEO!626 and Angel making out in his story. He then walks up to the doppelganger experiment ready to chew him out for the act, silencing all the others' laughter in the process, until Leroy stops laughing and begins coughing and rolling around in pain. Stitch quickly calms down at that point and helps Leroy back up.
- True Companions: Do you know who we're talking about, right? Either way, the story goes to show just how much the 'ohana have grown to love each other, and they're even willing to let Leroy join them.
- Wish-Fulfillment: Gantu's story is basically him wishing that he defeated Experiment 626.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Jumba's story essentially becomes a giant destructive wrestling match between Kaiju!626 and Robo-Pleakley, with Stitch and Pleakley actually reenacting the scenes themselves.
- Vague Age: While Lilo is described as a little girl in chapter one and still acts as naïve as we know her to be in the franchise, Nani mentions her getting "free room and board" in Chapter 2, suggesting that this fic might be taking place in Lilo's college years.
