Heartwarming / Heretical Edge

At some point, Heretical Edge is going to hit you right in the feels.

Be aware that there are a few spoilers dotting this page.

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• Flick running up to Avalon and asking her to help her learn how to fight after the first attempt on Avalon's life in the First Steps arc. Avalon is legitimately surprised that Flick doesn't hate her because of what happened, and while she doesn't react much, it's clear that she's touched. Especially once she starts Defrosting and the scene becomes even more Heartwarming in Hindsight.
  • Similarly, the rest of the team leaping to Avalon's defense when they get ambushed in the First Hunt arc.
• Pretty much everything Asenath] does in Visitations 5-08, gently comforting Flick as she breaks down in the face of the previous chapter's Reveal before promising to help her save her mother, protect her father, and kill the Necromancer who ruined their lives in the first place in any way she can.
  Flick: Thank you. For everything. I’d be… a lot worse off if it wasn’t for you.
  • For that matter, Flick's reaction to learning the truth behind her mother's disappearance is to forgive her, take back every bad thought she ever had about her, and swear to rescue her.
  Flick: Could you call me Felicity?
• Vanessa Moon has dedicated her life to finding her scattered family and reuniting them, despite her own fear of danger and confrontation.
  • Also, her reaction to Crossroads Academy's teachings that Strangers are Always Chaotic Evil is to immediately discount it. She knew from the beginning that non-humans are perfectly capable of being just as nuanced and complicated as human beings, because her own mother wasn't human. This stands in sharp contrast to Shiori Porter's fear and confusion over her own heritage.
• Flick comes home from a distressing, exposition laden conversation with Seller to discover that Twister has broken out her world class culinary skills to cook her a delicious birthday dinner.
  Twister: Everyone deserves to eat good on their birthday so, ya know, figured I’d provide.
  • Bear in mind, Flick is a Crossroads Heretic who has been taught to view all Strangers as evil monsters. Twister knows this, and only met Flick a few hours earlier. But hey, Asenath vouched for her.
  • To quote one of the chapter's comments: "It’s really hard to buy the Crossroads teachings when a vampire and immortally reborn shapeshifter make you dinner for your birthday"
• The final gift Flick receives for her seventeenth birthday, especially in light of what happened that day (although it doubles as a Tearjerker). It's a scrapbook her mother had been making. Joselyn had taken a photo of Felicity every single day from the day she was born until the day Fossor came and wrote a little note to go with each and every one of them. The last entry was a hastily written message telling Flick how much she loves her, and names Gaia Sinclaire as someone she can trust.
• Flick runs into her old best friend, Miranda Wallbern, who moved away from Wyoming when they were thirteen. Coming right after the traumatic events of the birthday, seeing Miranda makes Flick ecstatic. Miranda's just as happy to see Flick, and they spend an hour catching up before Flick has to leave. What's more, Miranda was recruited by Eden's Garden, which means that Flick is able to tell her everything that happened, providing her with additional and much needed support after her encounter with Fossor.
• Another heartwarming moment with Avalon comes when Flick returns from home and tells her team about what happened while she was gone. Avalon doesn't say anything, she just walks up to Flick and makes it clear she's not alone by being there. It's small, but potent.
• After Shiori Porter has a public Freak Out over the stress of her Dark Secret and Flick accidentally sees her private notebook with the name Asenath written all over it, Flick confronts her to try and help. What follows ends up being pretty much exactly what Shiori needs to hear as Flick gives her some desperately needed comfort and support as she deconstructs Shiori's Internalized Categorism.
  • The icing on the cake is Flick's defense of her friend Asenath, Shiori's half-sister, who similarly comforted Flick earlier in the story.
  Flick: Let me tell you about your sister. Let me tell you what happened when I went home, and how I met her. Then you can tell me if you still think she has to be evil.
  • The girls spend a lot of time together over the next arc, and throughout it all Flick's unwavering and genuine support of Shiori in the face of her Dark Secret goes a long way to helping her recover.
    • When Shoiri starts smiling, Flick knows she's making progress.
• The Meregan, a race of giants on the verge of extinction, found a seven year old half-human boy wondering around their world in the last decade. What do they do? Befriend him and try to send him back home. When they can't, the let him stay with them as they continue to search for a way to get him back to earth.
  • They're also very good friends of Flick's mother, and immediately promise to help save her from Fossor when Flick tells them what happened.]]
  • Flick and Shiori wound up on the Meregan's world because their emergency beacon mistook Flick for her mother when she was helping Shiori, a Half-Human Hybrid, come to terms with her heritage. It was the act of treating a part-Alter with compassion (on top of their shared genetics) that made the beacon confuse Flick with Joselyn.
• Flick describing Asenath and how much she trusts her to the Meregan so they can summon her to help save their children. Made doubly heartwarming because she's also reiterating the information to Shiori, Asenath's half-sister who was despairing over her vampiric heritage just the day before.
  Flick: So if certain people refuse to consider Asenath to be human, then we can’t use the word humanity to mean compassion, kindness, and just… plain caring about other people anymore. Because I’ve never met anyone in my life who embodies those concepts more than Asenath. She’s a vampire, but she’s not a threat. She’s not a monster. She’s my friend. She saved my life. She’s a hero.
  • Contact with Asenath is established and Flick starts to explain the situation before Senny cuts her off and proves her right.
  Asenath: Bring me. You don’t have to ask, Flick. It’s children.
  • And Shiori's reaction to seeing an image of Asenath, her half-sister, for the first time in her life.
    • The reunion of Asenath and Shiori. Senny instantly recognizes her sister's scent when arriving on the Meregan ship and quickly pulls Shiori into a hug and starts comforting her. She also reveals Shiori's birth name. Reathma.
• While most of it is distressing, there is one standout moment during the conversation Gaia has with Flick, Shiori, and Asenath]]) when Gaia makes a point of affirming to Flick how much of a hero her mother is.
  Gaia: If you learn nothing else in your life, know this, Felicity. Your mother is the most heroic person I have ever known in my long life.
• Shiori's reunion with Columbus. She basically glomps him as he lands in a pool of water, pulling him into a tight hug and apologizing for the way she was acting. He stands there stunned for a few seconds (he just got randomly teleported to another planet after all), then returns the hug.
  • Later, she takes him aside and confesses her "Dark" Secret to him. Columbus is shocked for a few seconds before declaring it to be the coolest thing he's ever heard.
  Columbus: You're like Blade. Only better because you're Shiori.
  Shiori: B-bu-but the—Crossroads was talking about how every St-Stranger is evil and all that. And vampires are… you know.
  Columbus: Shy, they can say anything they want. They could get every single person who has ever gone to that school, every Heretic who has ever existed to line up and tell me about how evil vampires are, all of them repeating over and over in one hundred percent agreement. And I’d tell every last one to screw themselves. Because you’re my sister. And I love you.
  • Then Asenath steps up to reveal that she's Shiori's half-sister and declares that being Shiori's brother also makes him her brother. Columbus agrees and pulls both of his sisters into a hug.
• Deveron Adams' interlude is mostly a Tearjerker, but it does have one outstanding heartwarming moment: his initial reaction to learning about Felicity Chambers, his wife Joselyn's other child by a different man. He quickly accepts her as if she were one of his own, speaks glowingly about her like any other parent, and prioritizes her protection from Ruthers, Fossor, or anyone else that might threaten her. Although his method of protecting her leaves something to be desired.
  • There's also his reaction to Felicity's dad. While Deveron is clearly discomforted by the fact that they're married to the same woman (and possibly jealous of how he got to raise Felicity), he also recognizes that Lincoln is a good man and doesn't (or at least is trying not to) hold anything against him. He might be in denial, but the situation makes it clear that Deveron is also a good man.
• The talk between Gaia and Avalon in Avalon's mini-interlude, which ends with a bit of good natured ribbing between the two of them and a hug.
  • Similarly, her description of her relationship with Seller and everything he did for her. It's pretty obvious that he's her father in all but name.
  • Said interlude also features Avalon reflecting on her relationship with Flick, which is basically a downpour of heartwarming.
    • While Avalon makes a point of being on a Last-Name Basis with Flick out loud, she internally refers to her roommate exclusively as Felicity.
    • As long as no one (especially Felicity) is looking, Avalon plays with and talks to Herbie just like Flick does. She's also the one who got him his eyes, using Scout as an intermediary.
    • Avalon was impressed by Felicity's willingness to work to strengthen and better herself when she asked her for help and deeply touched when she defended her from Trice's attack.
    Sands and the boys had willingly stayed too. All willing to fight, all willing to risk themselves just for her, in spite of Trice’s offer to let them leave safely. They stayed, all of them. And yet, thinking of Felicity’s choice to stay was… it was just different than the others. It made her feel… it made her feel…
    • The sheer ferocity of her hatred of Fossor for daring to think that he's going take Felicity away. And then there's her equally intense desire to protect her from him or anything else, which she declares to Herbie.
    • The Anger Born of Worry Avalon feels when she thinks of how Felicity was literally (and easily) abducted by aliens, even if it was by accident.
    • And finally, her struggle to overcome her hangups and admit her feelings for Felicity to herself. At this point it should be obvious that she has it bad for Flick.
• Sean Gerardo's relationship with his uncles Sebastian and Mateo (who isn't related to Sean, but is Seb's boyfriend). He's closer to them than his usually absent parents.
  • Ever wonder why Sean handled Flick's claim that Strangers aren't all evil so well, especially compared to his fellow Heretic-born Sands? It's because of his uncles. Mateo, who Sean always thought was a bystander, is actually a werewolf who went full on Papa Wolf mode when he found a gang threatening Sean as a kid. Sean didn't realize what happened that day until he went through the Edge and saw it from Sebastian's perspective. This left him confused until Flick told him about Asenath and he realized that not all Alters are evil.
    • Building on that. Sean's Heretic weapon is a robot dog that protects him. His beloved uncle is a werewolf who saved his life. This is not a coincidence.
• Surprisingly, a heartwarming moment manages to sneak its way into the furious What the Hell, Hero? Koren gives to Flick. One of the reasons she's so pissed off is because she's now worried about Flick after learning that she's her aunt. As angry as she is, Koren immediately accepts the truth about her aunt and grandmother to the point where she's as protective of them as she is of her parents. Flick's immediate response is a Jaw Drop. Then she stops saying "your" family to Koren and starts saying "our" family.
  • One of the first things they do the next morning is find Wyatt and tell him that Koren is coming along on the jungle hike Flick wrangled out of him, which Koren then follows up by setting up a time for Flick to tell her about Joselyn. She's as abrasive as ever (and still pissed at auntie Flick), but eager to learn about her newfound family members.
    • This also means that Deveron is going to be in for a pleasant surprise. He snuck his way onto that hike to get himself a day with his son and stepdaughter. Now his granddaughter is coming along too.
• Wyatt Rendell's initial reaction to an Internal Reveal that has huge implications about his life and the course it took from childhood is distressing. He very nearly has a Freak Out. The response of Deveron Adams - of all people - pushes the moment squarely into heartwarming. He pulls Wyatt into a Cooldown Hug while telling him that he doesn't care how strange he can be because he's too busy being so proud that he still raised himself to be the kind of man who tries to help others.
  • As the rest of the implications sink in, he looks at Flick and Koren in awe and joy as he realizes they're his sister and niece.
  Koren: Hey, Uncle Wyatt. Pretty fucked up family we've got here, huh?
  Wyatt: It's wonderful.
  • After they leave the jungle, Wyatt spends the next few hours shopping for seventeen presents to give Flick for every birthday he missed. He even wraps them! Then he goes out and does the same for Koren.
• The very first thing Vanessa and Tristan Moon do upon reuniting for the first time in over a decade is pull each other into a fierce hug.
• Flick doesn't want to confess her feelings for either Avalon or Shiori for fear of hurting the other. Avalon, in the meantime, comes up with a Polyamory solution.
• Despite Roxa's role in the battle in arc 24 being to hold back and wait for an opportunity as part of a hammer-and-anvil strategy, she charges right in when she sees her friends are in trouble.
• Flick finally reunites with her father in 26-01 and immediately runs into his arms for a hug. She then introduces her girlfriends to him.
• Flick's handling of Tabbris in New York Minutemen 27-04: After initial discomfort, Flick figures out that Tabbris is on her side. She invites her back into her body and starts referring to the team as OUR team, quickly realizing how much Tabbris has been helping her.
• The latter half of interlude 27B is about Shiori comforting Columbus after the hell he's just been through.
• Basically all of 28-04 as Flick and Tabbris finally get to to talk. The highlight, though? Flick decides that Tabbris is HER sister too, because they grew up together even if Flick didn't know it.
• Roxa's reaction to Tabbris after quickly establishing she's an ally in Field Trip 28-05: A big hug. WoG says that Roxa immediately understood what Tabbris had been through being functionally completely alone and on her own, having been in similar circumstances herself.
• Roxa, Flick, and Sands try to convince Jazz to come with them in 29-03 to help Jokai and his fellows despite Jokai being a Stranger. While Jazz isn't sure how to feel about Strangers, she chooses to go with them because she doesn't want her friend going into danger without her.
• Sands is FINALLY reunited with Larissa Mason at the end of Uprising 29-09.