#aeris sharphawk

[ahamkara-apologist]

...well in the wake of the recent chaos of the season finale, everyone post how your guardians are responding below! My main hunter, Aeris, is currently dissociating from a potent cocktail of shell shock and grief, while his half-sister Marcie (titan) is ugly crying. My retired guardian Petrichor-12 is also currently forcing himself to Not Think About It by knitting as many new blankets for eliksni babies as possible

[ruthlesslistener]

do you think Ghost has to deal with fans of The Guardian? like, not because they'd be annoyed or bothered but because every time he lets someone talk to them it either ends up with them killing a giant monster, delving into some ruin for a lost gun, or them giving away a billion-glimmer exotic sparrow that doesn't fit their Latest Aesthetic TM

I've honestly never thought of this before, mostly because there's no actual interactions with the Guardian and civilians of the Last City- which in turn makes it intruiguing to think about because yeah how WOULD the godslayer of the cosmos interact with ordinary human beings that are not undead corpses ressurected by a giant cosmic golf ball, but also goddamn it Bungie even if I enjoy the leeway you give for us to insert our own Guardians into situations, I really want to see the undead killing machine interacting with your genaric citydweller. Give us an idea of what the people think of the Guardian, how their culture inteacts with them, and what sort of social othering that Guardians might feel which keeps them locked to the tower and Guardian-Guardian interactions. Ik human mortals DO interact with them, but they're never your average joe, so that kind of makes gauging how that works to be impossible

My gut reaction would be that letting the Guardian meet civilians might not be a major issue, because the Young Wolf, as their name implies, is the loyal hound of the City and thus deals with its problems when called upon (or offered a shiny enough firearm), and so civilians just don't have anything that will actually make them do stupid shit, hence Ghost doesn't have to keep them on a kiddie collar to prevent them from running off and getting themselves into Situations. However, I CAN see some Guardians getting into trouble reguardless, so here's some things that my pack and their Ghosts have to deal with if they encounter civilians:

Marcelline (titan): Would want to show off her skills to impress the kiddos and/or is easily goaded into it if prompted, which causes obvious problems when you put your mind to it. Would also eagerly flirt with any girls fawning over her and would need her ghost to go get her half-brother Aeris to drag her away before she gets attatched. Marcie's outgoing and enthusiastic, but she also wears her heart on her sleeve and that can get her into trouble sometimes. The trouble almost always lands on her alone, but still. Getting attatched to someone who will grow old without you is never fun.

Aeris: The most stick-in-the-mud hunter to ever exist, except for one detail: he's always interested in testing his limits and does not give a shit what it'll do to him in the process. People might find him extremely intimidating and unapproachable at first, but the second someone asks if Guardians have a higher alcohol tolerance than normal humans, he's heading down to the pub with them to try to figure it out. Just because he looks like he's a cold motherfucker with excellent self-control doesn't necessarily mean that it's true.

Petrichor-12: Immidiatly goes into formal guard duty mode on instinct and makes everyone uncomfortable with how clipped and serious they are even though they're really just Extremely Aware of how fragile human beings are and want to make the tower look good. They also spend a lot of time in the Eliksni quarter, so the public opinion on them might be a little...split.

[ahamkara-apologist]

Hmm hmm debating making Crow's fear-infatuation with Aeris into a genuine short-term crush post-SOTH that Aeris knows about and is uncomfortable with, not only bc it would be a very good harsh lesson for himself given the fact that he is Not In A Good Place right after he escaped but also bc Aeris himself doesn't have enough problems so I gotta slap him with the aroace axe of 'I wish I could be this for you but I cannot' as well as 'I don't know if it's because I can't feel as other's do and I worry if there's fundamentally something wrong with me' autistic aro experience on top of it. Crow grows out of it eventually ofc and in the long run Aeris as YW can't exactly linger on himself for long but it would be an interesting take to spin on the whole concept since Crow/YW pairings are so common in fandom (for good reason)

[ahamkara-apologist]

A compilation of screenshots of my hunter main during the campaign, Aeris Sharphawk! This is partially used as a reference for myself, but also an excuse to make everyone look at my lad

[ahamkara-apologist]

Oh god I found old screenshots of Aeris from when I first started playing D2- I forgot how much of a twink he is without the Sealed Ahamkara Grips on sjdhfgb

[ahamkara-apologist]

you have GOT to post guardian pics I'm begging you. feed us (me?) information about your characters. I must know. it is imperative

TYSM FOR ENABLING ME ANON BC THEY ARE MY BLORBOS AND IM VIBRATING ABOUT THEM. buckle the fuck up because this is gonna be a long fucking post

Okay first up is Aeris Sharphawk- aro/ace, he/him. he's my main character, my hunter, and the Young Wolf of my timeline.

He’s half-Awoken, half-Human (I’ll get to that in a moment, he’s actually an older oc of mine that I ported over from Bloodborne whose bastard nature needed a D2 equivalent), and the older half-brother to my solar titan, Marcelline Attenbough- one of the few little remnants from their past life that they were able to discover in a diary on Marcie’s corpse when they were rezzed together (which occurred because their ghosts are twins). He’s autistic, lawful neutral, and vastly prefers using Darkness over Light because of sensory issues; his ghost (Hoarfrost, previously Mercury) mods his helmets to drastically reduce noise, but he can’t help how Arc tingles, Solar burns, and Void numbs. Tends to spend most of his battles either hyperfocused or dissociated to deal with it. As for the lawful neutral title, that’s because he doesn’t fight for the Vanguard because of a loyalty to humanity, but exclusively for the survival of the Last City and everyone in it. This extended to House Light and the Cabal under Caital instantaneously, and would do so to Eramis if she so chose, because he really just doesn’t take most things personally. He's sometimes derogatorily called 'the Vanguard's Hound' because of this.  

He’s skilled with a bow, and is cursed with a resting haunted stare that can rival even the fiercest bird of prey- hence his title, given to him because his last name wasn’t present in the little diary that Marcie had when they were rezzed. Personality wise, he’s quiet, stoic, extremely efficient at what he does, fiercely protective of those he loves, and deeply curious about the unknown- though if you don’t know him, you’d never be able to guess it, because he struggles deeply with facial expressions and tone, giving him the appearance that he’s ruthlessly cold and unfeeling (pretty much the Guardian we see in game). Because of this, he tends to do much better with Eliksni than most of humanity- bar the Awoken, though Mara makes him deeply uncomfortable- and is thus far more comfortable with them. He’s the moon to Marcie’s sun, and helps keep her in check, for despite her cheery personality, she has a very strong sense of justice and a penchant for impulsive, temperamental behavior when she thinks that justice has been wronged. This goes both ways, however, as Aeris is the very definition of ‘curiosity killed the cat’; he voluntarily gets bit by venomous snakes at venom labs to see how immunity/allergies develops over time, and has a fascination with the Vex that got him a ‘needs watching’ report after he nearly jumped into a pool of radiolaria to see what would happen. The older-brother affection isn’t related to just Marcie, though; he’s unofficially adopted Eido as his younger sister (or kid? Because uhhh that curiosity of his has extended to fucking Misraaks once or twice), and is a mentor figure of sorts to Crow, though he’s unaware that Crow idolizes him; he only hunted Uldren down to keep Marcie out of trouble, as he didn’t like Cayde and was neutral on Uldren, so seeing Crow for the first time didn’t bother him at all. Tutored on occasion by Osiris, and thus has a very deep respect for him. 

People other than Marcie that he likes:  Zavala, Ikora, Osiris, Eido, Misraaks, Eris, and Variks, Petrichor-12 (oc), Viper-4 (oc, lightless guardian), Crow

People he dislikes: Cayde, the Spider, Clovis Bray, Savathun, Mara Sov, Petra Venj (can’t read her very well), anyone who is loud or insistent or confusing 

Primary class (Dark): Stasis

Primary class (Light): Arcstrider

Motifs: Dark, cool blue/silver, viper and hawk symbolism

Likes: Learning about things, working with the Eliksni, being good at being a hunter, bows/glaives/swords, playing with Strand, Gambit (surprisingly)

Dislikes: Crucible, loud noises, fusion rifles, snipers because of the kick (despite being very good with them), shotguns, fans and most other guardians 

Fun fact: When Hoarfrost and Solaris found them, it was in a frigid part of old Russia, with Aeris holding Marcie close to his chest with his back to the door- they had frozen to death while trying to keep each other warm, and were under a thick layer of permafrost. When they were risen, they found out their names, their relationship to each other, and the fact that their father was a cheating bastard who produced Aeris after screwing an Awoken woman for the novelty of it because Marcie had a little diary in her front pocket, which had been somewhat preserved by the cold. Both their ghosts theorize that the reason why Aeris is so drawn to Stasis and Marcie to Solar is because of how they died, though neither guardian will say anything about it. He can also speak near-fluent Eliksni.

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Then there’s Marcie, younger half-sister to Aeris and the sun to his moon; she/her, Solar Titan, lesbian, lawful good. Where he is quiet and introverted, she is loud and bombastic, and where he likes to dart in and strike down his enemies from afar, she likes to punch. I just recently made her in Destiny because the character creation doesn't really match how I see her, hence why she's got Arc on here

(closer to her actual face minus the blue eyes; this is a very old bloodborne pic)

Unlike her half-brother, Marcie is a full human, and- according to the diary she rezzed with- was objectively her father's favorite, though the feeling was not mutual, and their relationship was strained by her taking so kindly to the bastard son he tried to send away. Compared to Aeris, she's bright, bubbly, and outgoing, but has a fierce temper, and is quick to snap if something has pushed her too far-think a jack russel's terrier of a human being. Her ghost's name is Solaris (previously Quicksilver), and she prefers the Light and Solar by far. Her preferred method of combat is to hit first, ask questions later, which can be incredibly effective or incredibly dangerous depending on who's on the opposite end of her wrath. Her and Aeris share many quests together, with me typically attributing all the seasons that I didn’t play to Marcie, given that I didn’t make a Destiny character for her for the longest time. 

She was best friends with Cayde, and was so devastated by his death that Aeris had to go instead, as she would have killed anything and everything in vengeance without a second thought. She did, however, kill Riven- something that Aeris himself was somewhat reluctant to do,given his fascination with the Ahamkara. She's stubborn as a mule, surprisingly strong despite her small stature (well, small-ish), and is an absolute massive lesbian, with her type specifically being 'big strong ladies who can kill me'- which was primarily why she wasn't allowed to fight Eramis, or other big hotties, as she has a pretty hardcore crush on her. (The second reason was that she would have stood and bickered with Eramis about the ethics of what she was doing until either one or the other yielded). Instead, she was assigned to work with Misraaks to evacuate House Light refugees, which ended up being a fortuitous partnership with the coming of the Endless Night. Now, her primary work for the Vanguard consists of aiding Eliksni refugees, along with general alien-human politics and tackling xenophobia, as well as working on being an apprentice Splicer. She is very, VERY passionate about equal rights and will drag you to the Crucible if you fight her- and good fucking luck winning against her, because she fucking loves the Crucible and will beat your ass everytime. She’s somewhat of a local celebrity in that reguard

Her deep fondness for her brother comes primarily from the fact that he is one of the few people to take her seriously without either asking her to calm down or come off as patronizing- he's also a well of stability to her excitable moods, the voice of reason to her hyperempathy. While he keeps her from biting off more than she can chew, she acts as his translator + guide, yanking him back onto the path of sanity if he starts to wander into the Deep, and helping him with dysfunction things that Hoarfrost can’t do. She also enjoys working through the data he collects, even if she has no desire to go searching for it herself, so they make a good pair- even if, like most siblings, they will argue over every little thing and sometimes drive each other up the walls with their stubbornness.

I've already mentioned that she got along with Cayde, but her other friends at the tower are Shaxx, Drifter, Saint-14, and Ada-1. Misraaks is her mentor, as well as one of the few people who can talk her down from stupid shit, with uh…questionable results. And while she couldn't stand the sight of Crow when Aeris dragged him back, she managed to befriend him reguardless, mostly because he was so different from the Uldren she remembered that she couldn’t help but accept him for who he was. She often went out drinking with him and Amanda, and was devastated when she died. 

People she likes: Cayde, Shaxx, Drifter, Saint-14, Ada-1, Misraaks, Crow, Amanda (rip), Caiatl

People she dislikes: Uldren Sov, The Osmium Siblings, The Spider, Lakshmi-2, anyone against the Eliksni or people who are rude to Aeris, Calus

Likes: Crucible, Gambit, fucking around with weapons in new and creative ways, going out to drink with friends, playfully flirting, helping with construction work around the Eliksni District, playing around with the Light, moths and other fuzzy creatures

Primary Class (Light): Solar

Primary Class (Dark): Strand

Dislikes: Fighting Eliksni, any exploding enemies that she can’t punch, bows because Aeris will always be better than her at using them, the fact that Aeris fucked Misraaks at one point for science, being alone, her inability to score a girl who isn’t a war criminal

Motif: crimson and gold, bears or lion with eagle wings

Fun fact: Her grasp on Eliksni is actually more fluent than Aeris, and she spends a good deal of her time in the Tower socializing with people while he’s off doing…whatever.

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Okay, now onto Petrichor-12, who decided to nope out of being a Guardian so I deleted their slot to make Marcie before I really did anything to dazzle them up

Petrichor-12 is a now-retired guardian that actually came from a dream I had before I even played Destiny. They/them or he/him, neutral good, Void titan, ghost is seldom-speaking and called Whisper. Neutral good. I attribute them with D1 content, so they’re the guardian that killed Crota and Oryx, though Marcie and Aeris were also there to help.

Petrichor is an older, somewhat quiet, melancholy do-gooder that's been haunted by guilt ever since they found out the memories of who they were via the Deep Stone Crypt- a bodyguard for Clovis Bray that was turned to a path of anger, abuse, and violence after agreeing to be tested on for power, and got corrupted by the Darkness. This, paired with being rezzed in the Dark Ages, means that they have a lot of trauma surrounding violence, power, and the dilemma of being made to kill when all you want to do is save people. As such, Eramis's predicament troubles them greatly, and while it was them who gunned her down in conjunction with Aeris, they often found themselves returning to her frozen body on Europa to talk to her (presumed corpse) about Darkness corruption in a sort of venting monologue-advice system, which worked both as a way of fending off their troubles as well as keep an eye on her state- though now that she’s defrosted they’ve vowed never come near her again out of embarrassment. 

While retired, they are a stalwart defender of anyone who needs it and a keeper of peace, driven partially by a genuine desire to do good and a need to prove themselves not the person that they used to be. No longer able to mingle with other guardians or humanity at large due to PTSD from what they learned, they live in the Botza district as an ambassador between the Eliksni and humanity, they like to knit + quilt in their free time, teaching whichever hatchlings will listen and getting tutored on weaving by old Wolves in return. They're also 6'3", so…lorge. Zavala and Misraaks are the two people they talk to the most outside of the Eliksni refugees, and they drop by to say hi to Eva and knit with her whenever they have the chance. The war with the Witness is threatning to bring them out of retirement, something that they are deeply unhappy with. 

People he likes: Namrask, Misraaks, Saladin, Zavala, Ikora, Osiris (recently), Marcie and Aeris, Saint-14, Eris (complicated)

People they dislike: Themselves, Osiris (formerly), Eramis (reminds them of themselves), Ghaul, Oryx, Xivu Arath, Clovis Bray, anyone who goads them to fight, Elsie and Ana Bray by association, Rasputin 

Motif: gold and sapphire blue, used to have a gryphon motif but stopped wearing it because they don’t want to be recognized as the Kingkiller

Likes: Knitting, sewing, weaving, gardening, really anything restorative they can do with their free hands that forces their mind not to wander

Class (Light): Void, sometimes Arc

Class (Dark): no.

Dislikes: War, fighting, being a guardian, everything that has to do with what they used to be, anything Braytech sciences, the cumulative trauma from the Dark Ages and seeing recordings of who they used to be in the Deep Stone Crypt, their own fear of themselves

Fun fact: Petrichor-12 can speak Eliksni fluently, having modulated their voice and hearing to be able to incorporate the subsonic clicks and chirps in their speech, and is now working on learning Ulurant despite not at all liking the Cabal empire

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Ash: Another dream character of mine, and my newest Guardian (so she’s somewhat of a wip). She/her, solar + void warlock, chaotic neutral to lawful evil depending on her mood. Pansexual but bitchless. Rezzed in the tail end of the Dark Ages, just long enough for her to see how horrible everything was but not long enough to see the true extent of it. Scholar of the Light, and most recently a scholar of the Dark as well.

Ash is a warlock with an awful temper, a moral code that changes on a whim, and a ravenous appetite for knowledge that comes at the cost of everyone else, including herself. Her ghost (an anxious and caring little lass) is called Nutmeg, and is pretty much the only indicator that she has a soft spot. Ash dedicated herself to learning how to get closer to the Light, but unlike the more conventional meditations that people usually do to, she was inspired by ancient Greek priestesses and decided for a more unconventional route- by doing hard drugs. By getting either extremely drunk or very high, she claims that she overcomes the need for meditation (or, rather, bypasses it entirely because she’s too impatient for it) and gains a deeper connection with her powers, as she’s connecting with it instinctually rather than choosing to seek it out. Nutmeg and many others are not as convinced about this method, but they also can’t deny that it doesn’t have its perks, as Ash does have a very powerful connection to her light- mainly through exploding things, or setting everything around her on fire. It’s how she used to survive the Warlords she’d steal from in the Dark Ages, and she’s known specifically for her ability to mimic a nova bomb, but with solar power, which is strong particularly for how unexpected it is. 

However, being constantly hungover and harbouring no friends doesn’t exactly have its benefits, and as a result Ash is almost always grumpy, abrasive, quick to anger, quick to turn to cruel jibes and mocking when being defensive (which is often), and is generally awful to be around. She has no friends other than Nutmeg (whose bond has become strained as of late, since Ash is now turning to substance abuse for coping with the impending threat of the Witness rather than simply using it for her studies), her apartment is an uncleaned shithole she only uses for crashing in when she’s particularly out of it, and she's constantly in a state of passive-aggressive warfare with Osiris, as she and him used to occasionally cross paths and share research; they might have had a student-teacher dynamic if they didn’t grate so abrasively, and if Ash wasn’t so much of a lone wolf. He’s tried to whip her into shape a couple of times, but to no avail- they just devolved into shouting matches. Pretty much the only people she listens to are the Drifter and Nutmeg, but whether or not she’ll actually take their advice is a toss-up. 

Despite this, she will overall always choose to do what's right and will begrudgingly trudge along with people in random strikes to ensure that important missions get done, as she fears failure more than she does judgment. And yet, to an extent she also fears judgment, for part of the reason why she’s so cruel is to keep people at arm’s length, so as to prevent them from learning her weaknesses- not even her constant complaining about being bitchless will cover up that the core reason why she makes no effort to clean herself up and be nicer is because she fears vulnerability. She’s also brilliant with the Light and cunningly adept with the Dark, which is why the Vanguard continues to ask for her help and expertise.   

People she likes: the Drifter, Hawthorne, Nutmeg, Eido, Toland, Shaxx to most everybody’s surprise

People she dislikes: Pretty much the whole Vanguard and 90% of other guardians, Saladin, the Iron Lords, Osiris, Misraaks, 

Primary class (Dark): Stasis, wants to learn Strand but has a hard time letting go

Primary class (Light): Solar, Void

Likes: Learning nuances of the Light that others don’t go into detail to, connecting with the Light, growing more powerful and shaping it into new, experimental Supers that would make Zavala have a heart attack if he saw them in action, taking leadership in Strikes and prodding around New Lights to teach them about what it is to be a Guardian (but gently), killing assholes to put them in their place, spooking people

Dislikes: Being told what to do, being reminded that she’s a mess, being reminded that she’s afraid and that her behavior is starting to turn self-detrimental, being looked down on by other Guardians, the restrictive nature of Vanguard protocol that keeps her from playing around with her experimental supers, guardians who have no respect or care about mortal lives, getting kicked from bars for fighting said guardians with no respect or care for mortal lives, being reminded that she has a soft side and cares so much for other people that it scares her

Colours/theme: black, flame-gold, and green

Fun fact: Likes the Hive aesthetic, and knows their tongue just for the hell of it. Has quite a bit of fun tormenting and taunting Hive Lightbearers, loves digging around the Osmium Siblings. Despite this, she’s not passionate about the Hive, and doesn’t care one bit if they’re wiped out or not. She also pretty much never takes off the Stag helm, as dropping a rift on death has saved her ass more than once, and tends to sleep in her robes. It’s a miracle that she doesn’t stink something awful, but smells perpetually like smoke instead.

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and last but not least: Viper-4, an ex-guardian who I have almost nothing on because he tends to be a side character: he/him, trans exo, primarily black chassis with red markings, not yet settled on alignment. A friend of Aeris, he's an ex-Hunter who is now the primary caretaker for a variety of venomous snakes whose species have survived the Collapse. He collects their venom to try to recreate old Golden-Age medicines and antivenom- which he does with Aeris's help- and had his forearms modded with soft silicone so that the snakes don't hurt him if they bite him. Generally a friendly and chill guy, but has a melancholy air as most Ghostless do, and wants to learn Strand so that he has some modicum of control over the elements again, as his lack of feeling the Light was the hardest part about his Ghost's death. Much like Brya and Sagira, his ghost sacrificed her to save him, but he blames himself for her death and pretty much entirely refuses to talk about it. Used to be quite adept with Void. I note that he's trans here because it carried over into his exo body, as he was raised with synthetic top surgery scars that were then worked into beautiful engravings of flowers, swords, and snakes by Viper-1

[ahamkara-apologist]

Some quick Aeris facts for y'all before I go to bed:

-Really likes lemon-flavored candies and lemon cake. Also a big fan of those fluffy donut holes with powdered sugar on top of them

-Very soft-spoken and usually mumbles when he talks, if he talks at all (yeah I based a lot of him off the Guardian in-game, but the Guardian's voice in game is super deep and that always takes me out LOL). He's also very blunt and has a hard time not sounding either deadpan or having a slightly off cadance to his voice, and most of his 'snappy comebacks' are from action movies or watching other guardians. Because his humour is extremely dry and he has a soft spot for puns, its sometimes hard to tell if this is deliberately done for comedic effect or copied because he's trying to come off as cool

-Will also infodump about his friend's interests and studies if prompted and in a good mood, and enjoys being infodumped to in turn. It gives him a starting-off point for him to engage in a conversation without Ghost's or Marcie's help

-Hates the popularity and 'placed on a pedestal' nature of being The Guardian(tm) and cares very little about fitting in socially, but also really wants to please those he looks up to/not upset people.

-Cannot sit normally on anything. He's a Hunter for a reason. He has to crouch-perch on everything and be on top of the tallest thing in the room. Half the time its just to see that he can do it

-Ghost is still officially named Ghost because he's got a Thing about names being special and also because neither of them can settle on one they like (I've called him Hoarfrost in the past but they are STILL debating on that). Also, he prefers to go by 'Guardian' because 'Aeris' is close to 'Eris' and in his reasoning, 'she had the name first so she gets seniority rights'

-Actually really likes tactile stimuli. He won't initiate physical affection much, but you bet your ass he's gonna cuddle if given the chance, though the person he usually only actively cuddles with is his sister, Marcie, or Ghost

-Has an apartment in the Tower that he never uses. Pretty much lives in the Eliksni quarter exclusively bc they don't pick up on the fact that he's autistic as fast as human people and he really likes that

-He's got Archer Muscles(tm) and is pretty pleased with it. He doesn't think much of his appearance often, but thats one of the few aspects of it that he's proud of

-Crow is one of his best friends, and while they had a whole tense thing with Crow having a crush on him pre regaining his memories that Aeris couldn't reciprocate and felt guilty for, they're still on pretty good terms (thats a whole other seperate thing I can get into tho)

-Actually hates fusion rifles, but was too polite to correct Saint when he said Aeris's favorite gun was a fusion rifle so

-Sexuality is like. Aro/ace/gay. He's aro for sure, and most of the time he barely thinks about or desires sex with people, but when he does it's only with men, his taste in which is...questionable, most of the time.

-(Misraaks. Taniks, if he had the chance. Drifter. You get the point.)

-Also, he's a bottom and likes to be shoved around bc of afformentioned 'doesnt like being treated like the Chosen One' shtick

-Pre death and rez: He's the result of a cocky, boastful human man getting frisky with an Awoken warrior. Said man married for power later, and was VERY unhappy when Aeris was dumped on his doorstep as a kid, esp. since he got his wife pregnant already (that was Marcie)

-Aeris's mother was named Iliya, he was brought to term, born in the Reef, and dumped on his dad bc his dad said they wouldn't need contraceptives bc Awoken and 'normal humans' couldn't interbreed. She pretty much birthed him out of spite

-He DID go back to the Reef a few times as a diplomat from Earth (his dad was politically savvy, if a douchebag), but I doubt his mom ever bothered with him much. Marcie was the only person he was close to, as he was her older brother and he ADORED her, and that was a bond that persisted even after their death and rez together

-she died in the Skolas Incident btw so no meeting her son again post-rez for her.

-This is something that Mara knew vaguely about, bc while Awoken/Humans are viable, they're really rare in the Reef. That she knew of his birth pre-death and who his mother was is part of the reason Aeris doesn't like her- it weirds him out. The only info that he got about himself pre-rez was from Marcie's diary (which was on her corpse when they were rezzed) was that the swearing woman underneath him in a rusted-out shelter in the cold of Old Russia was his half sister and that his father was a no-good whore, so the fact that someone out there knows of the other half of his family...it bothers him

-Despite that, he still has an instinctual connection to the Reef and a longing to fit in with it and gets really shy when Petra calls him 'cousin', since he's not quite right enough to stick in with Humans and too boring to be Awoken back on Earth, so it makes him feel included

[ahamkara-apologist]

omg sorry to bother i just wanted to pop in and say Aeris is soooo pretty 👉👈

YOU'RE NOT A BOTHER I LOVE MY D2 OCS AND ALWAYS JUMP AT THE OPPORTUNITYTO INFODUMP ABOUT MY BOY

Yeah if you can get over the 'haunted victorian child' look on his face (which, fun fact, his origin is actually as my Bloodborne hunter so that's legit), he's actually super pretty!! Here's some of my fav screenshots I found when digging through my files to make a reference sheet for his face:

I dont think I have more than a couple screenshots where he isn't doing some variation of this meme tho djcjfje

[ruthlesslistener]

Do you have any vessel oc’s? If not, what are your vessel head cannons?

I have one (well, technically 2), but I don't really do much with them because fandom ocs are admittedly not really my thing unless I'm accidentally turning my player character into one (Aeris Sharphawk my beloved). My vessel ocs are a pair of twins called Hawthorne and Thistle, but Thistle was killed when they were both teenagers, their mask shattered beyond repair, so Hawthorne took their shade into themselves. They now wander the wastelands between kingdoms to bring gentle deaths and quiet burials to those who are lost, and are mates with a firefly called Flicker, who WAS a graverobber before Hawthorne caught them. I don't really do much with 'em other than think of them fondly sometimes.

As for vessel headcanons, here we go!

-Vessels who are capable of surviving outside of the egg (true-voided, or at least mostly-voided) have a body that is basically void doing its damned best to mimic the internal organs and function of living bugs. It's material that's working off of the genes left behind by PK and WL to construct a Creature, but since it's still just primordial goop trying to be a living being, everything is a little more elastic or flexible than a flesh-and-blood entity. Hence why Hollow could do their tentacle attack, and why Ghost could '''eat''' the crystal heart by just...idk, absorbing it through their chest

-Technically breathing and organ functions aren't 100% essential, but since they started off as biological beings that then were formed of void-goop, their bodies will panic after a long time without it. Just because they're made of void instead of proteins doesn't mean that they don't still need some semblance of a living vessel. Blame PK's genes holding a biological memory of being a wyrm pre-ascension for that one

-They don't need to eat unless they are lacking in void, though, so hunger isn't really a thing that bothers them. The only time they really feel it is if they are about to go through a molt and need a hell of a lot more void to grow bigger, or if they've been severely injured and need to regain a lot more of it. What they eat doesn't matter- they're capable of turning everything from bug chitin to steel into pure void

-Their masks are sort of the main thing holding them together because it's a strong reminder of what their form is supposed to be. Without it, their exoskeleton will dissolve and they will just sort of melt out as an amoeba-like being of void, which is what the shades are. Not being able to find their masks again/the masks being shattered beyond repair is what causes a 'death', where the shade is unable to return to their mortal shell and is instead damned to live in a transient state until someone dissipates their form. Entering another's mask cannot be done without explicit consent

-Because they were all formed from the remnants of a long-dead ancient god, they all share a sort of telepathic link, as if they were all still singular parts of one massive entity. Cutting themselves off from one another is possible, but it is distressing to the individual. This is also why they are far more social than the other gods; technically they all view themselves as one unit rather than individual parts

-Their communication is not based on an exchange of words, but rather on a lack of it. You can't really call void communication 'voidspeak' because of it. Even if they call or hum to each other, it is more of a vibration through the void sea or a deafening of silence that forms their communication, if they aren't just directly impressing their thoughts and feelings into the other's void so that they know what each other are thinking

-Speaking of that, they don't think in words, but in shapes and sensations. Technically speaking, translating those shapes and sensations into sentences is possible, but it would always be taciturn, awkward, and lose a lot of the inflection behind it, because you're trying to turn a three-dimensional parcel of information into a two-dimensional sentence with past or present tenses. It just doesn't work very well, and this is why very voided beings like Ghost or Hollow probably wouldn't speak very often even if they had the ability to do so. Same with sign; I headcanon Hollow to learn sign, but only speak in very simple sentences or single-word fragments, while Ghost knows sign but just doesn't use it at all. Better to impress their thoughts onto an other's mind than to bother with something that loses so much of their meaning

-Attempting to understand a void-impression on your thoughts is also quite difficult without practice. You have to actively listen and allow their thoughts to mingle with yours to get an idea of what they mean. Most of the time, it manifests more as you subconsciously understanding what they are telling you with a glance or body language than being actively aware that they are touching their mind against yours

-Void is tied to regret, the lack of all things, death, and entropy/lack of entropy. Void beings, then, are capable of sensing the shadow of regret within other people, the areas where their bodies are not, and what is set in active decay and what is held in stasis. In a way, they view people less as a form existing in empty space, and more the area where there is no empty space- if that makes sense

-This is also why void beings tend to be more passive gods. The Pale King, White Lady, and Radiance all needed active worship of their different elements to receive sustenance. In contrast, there will always be death, regret, fear, and silence given freely from the populace, whether they are aware of it or not. Active worship is nice, but it is not necessary, because there will always be someone who fears or is becoming one with the void

[ruthlesslistener]

is it possible to adopt a sister. doing that for eido

op do you happen to be Aeris Sharphawk

(also big fuckin mood)

[ruthlesslistener]

Destiny 2 Prompt Fill Part 1

Prompt 77: "You smell nice" (Variks and Aeris), for @vivifrage

Also posted to AO3; all fic prompts for Destiny 2 shall be kept there as well as on tumblr. Prompts that involve OCs (aka guardians) will get an author's note describing them so that anyone reading isn't thrown in blind.

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Preliminary note: Aeris Sharphawk is a Bloodborne oc that I crossed over into Destiny as my hunter for fun, along with his half-sister, Marcelline (who is a titan to match her strength build in Bloodborne; Aeris was an arcane/skill hybrid). To keep their arcs concurrent with Destiny, I've chosen to make him half-human half Awoken to match the fact that he chose to became a cosmic deity in Bloodborne, while Marcie is full human (their dad was a whore). They were resurrected here in tandem by twin ghosts that found their bodies together in the ruins of old Europe (Aeris had been trying to protect his younger sister from a bomb, but failed), and know of their old names and relations to one another through a diary Marcie kept in her pocket. I'm planning on having Marcie in another drabble, hence my brief rundown of the two here.

Of the many guardians that passed by his bunker, Variks would recognize the one currently loitering behind the door anywhere. Though perhaps that didn’t mean much, coming from an Eliksni that had made enemies of half of the Sol system. His people’s minds were not prone to degeneration from age, and the complex web of those who considered him traitor and those who had begrudgingly allied with him had forced him to keep his mind sharp regardless. Not to mention the fact that guardians in particular appeared to try to set themselves apart from one another in any manner possible, be it dunking their armour in violently bright paints or covering themselves in the bones of their enemies.

But even for a guardian, Aeris was odd. It wasn't so much his heritage that set him apart from the rest (though it certainly contributed, once the others started to piece together the odd mishmash of human traits that made him; too pale pink for an Awoken, too sharply angled for a Human), it was his attitude. Keen and cold, ruthlessly knowledge-oriented yet impatient. Unimpressed by the promise of fresh loot or glimmer, and uninterested in picking a fight if he didn’t see any purpose to it, unlike so many guardians who practically lived and breathed to kill. Sharphawk, the others called him, and for once the title fit, for there was no warrior that shared kinship with that Terran bird of prey as well as he did. Though if Variks himself were asked for his opinion on him, he’d likely compare Aeris Sharphawk to a newly appointed scribe of House Judgement, one that was fresh from apprenticeship and all-too-serious for it. He could almost see nubby little horn juts bare of anything but their coming of age ribbons when he looked at them, though he had been careful to never let anything slip to Aeris when he spoke to him about Riis. That was a tale better suited for his young sire-sister, who was about as easygoing and quick to laugh as he was to scrunch his nose up and sigh.

(Perhaps that was why this particular guardian was so distinct to him; he was familiar, in a way. Variks knew what it was like to be that young, that serious, that hungry for knowledge. Even his relationship with his full-human sister reminded him of faraway days with Eramis, back when she used to sit on his windowsill to ramble about passing aircraft while he dutifully copied the notes he’d taken in the cool summer evenings. But that was a painful memory to stir right now, and so he kept it hidden away behind the folds of his ribcage alongside the recollections of all the others he had lost to the Whirlwind. They could be mourned once the Eliksni were whole again- for now, he had his penance to pay.)

So listening in to his pitiful attempts to trudge past the bunker, covered in radiolarian fluid and the distinct pungent splatters of vehicle fluid was...amusing, to say the least. Variks wasn't entirely sure how he thought he could slip by him without him noticing, given the fact that he had tutored this particular guardian extensively in the strength of Eliksni senses when sending him down into Eramis’s den, but perhaps it was less a manner of slinking by to lick the wounds and more a matter of clinging to the tattered scraps of his pride while he still could. Human and Eliksni were alike in that manner, at least, and while Aeris was not particularly proud when it came to matters of the hunt, taking a tumble from a vehicle into Vex-infested lands would break the spirit of anyone who managed to survive it, guardian or no.

“Variks can hear you, you know.” He punctuated his words with an amused chitter, though he knew that Aeris could not hear such a soft sound behind the steel doors. "And smell all the nice smells that you brought to my doorstep. Come inside, stop skulking about in the cold. One might think that you were trying to avoid poor Variks."

A pause, the soft crunch of shifting snow coming to an end, and then the entrance to the bunker slid open, revealing the guardian in all his messy glory. The pinched, tight-lipped frown on his face was clearly visible even behind his helmet, though it was more than justified in this instance- the tattered, soaked mess of his armour spoke of a long, painful tumble into a mess of Vex parts, one that drew a sympathetic hiss from Variks as he gave the young lightbearer a quick once-over.

"I wasn't trying to avoid you." His voice held an edge of careful neutrality within it, one that spoke more for his emotional state than any upset growl ever could. "I'm just...busy. Elsie has a change of clothes for me back at camp that I'm eager to get back to. I was planning on visiting you once I got into a fresh uniform."

"And risk many deaths to the Europan tundra on the way?" He clicked his mandibles together, a human gesture of disappointment that he had grown quite fond of. Few knew how close it came to light Eliksni laughter, though the deepening frown on Aeris's face indicated that he was aware of the double meaning. "Radiation poisoning is a painful way to die. I'm sure your little machine will be perfectly capable of sending a message to your colleagues. For now, rest. Variks has warm furs and heat to sustain you while you wait. See it as a thank you for your help."

He gestured to the door on the opposite end of the bunker with his staff, then began to walk over to type in the passcode. Aeris let out a hard breath, but conceded, following along on silent footsteps. He didn't comment on the way Variks leaned more of his weight on his staff than he usually did, or offer his support like others might. And for once, Variks was grateful for the lack of help. His pride had suffered enough after the Whirlwind; he did not need to be reminded that the centuries had been harsher on him than it had for Eramis, that he had grown weak and frail in the cold of the long fall.

(But then again, he had been much older than her when they had first met, when he had traveled to observe the house that humanity would eventually brand the Devils. Old enough that she had barely come up to his knee when he'd sat with the young to teach them how to write, though that had been in part due to her naturally shorter stature than age. She had spent the majority of the day chattering away at him about various aircraft, and he had told her about the stars and how they guided their pilots across the vast oceans of the universe.)

(Her death was ice in his chest. If the hatred for what she had become did not smoulder like a living sun, then it was sure to swallow him whole.)

(But that was a problem for future Variks to deal with.)

The light switch for his current living quarters refused to work when he flicked it, so he slammed his staff into it with an irritated grunt, trying not to think too hard about the fact that he put an excessive amount of force into the swing. It worked, and it made Aeris jump halfway across the room, so he instead turned his attention to the startled Hunter currently pressing his back to the wall, carefully sizing him up. He got a petulant scowl in return, along with an arrow aimed at his forehead, but he paid no mind to it. Once one realized what the scent of guardian fear smelled like, and how adept they were at redirecting their bullets, it was hard to care much about the risk of being shot. Nor would Aeris bring it up, for he could already tell by the change of colour on his cheeks that he was quite embarrassed at his loss of composure.

Eh, one of his old cloaks would work. The one with half of its hem ripped off might fit the guardian's slender frame, and it was stained enough with Eliksni blood that he didn't care too deeply about losing it to a vengeful patch of radiolarian fluid. And if Akile-Namrask- upheld his end of the bargain, then its loss wouldn't leave a gap in his already-sparse wardrobe for long. It was better to be rid of it and deepen the shaken bonds he had with the lightbearers than to mourn the loss of one of the few pieces of warm clothing he had left.

"Take off your soiled armour. Leave it by the door. This place stinks deep enough of rot already; it does not need Vex milk added to the mix." Variks leaned his staff up agsinst the wall, then turned to the alcove where he built his nest, his subvocals dropping to a pleased purr as the space heater within began powering up. Already, the old ache in his arms was beginning to fade, the joints in his prosthetics loosening under the warmth. He had no idea how the Sharphawk had managed to trudge through the ice with torn-open armour, though he had a vague idea it involved many a resurrection on the way over. "Nor do I need the scent of Guardian in my den. Variks has enough nightmares already, yes?"

"As if you're scared of us anymore. You spend more time with Guardians than you do with the Eliksni." Aeris's wry tone was quite the departure from his usual measured speech, but Variks knew that the humour within it was genuine as soon as he shot the hunter an exasperated glare. What humans might consider a ghost of a smile was a full-on smirk in the language of his people, all squinting narrow eyes and drooping lip. "I'm sure you've come to appreciate the more esoteric nuances of our scent by now. We're practically a new house for you at this point."

Dangerous words for an alien that held the rise of Riis in one soft hand and the downfall of its people in another. Variks grinned, all sharp mandibles and needle teeth, then leaned in to sniff at the joint of Aeris's neck, making sure each inhalation was pronounced enough for the Hunter to see. He did not know enough about Eliksni culture to realize the hierarchy boundary Variks had technically just crossed, but breaking a few courtesy rules was well worth the face he got in return. And if Aeris had learned under Misraak's guidance- well. He may be a houseless exile now, but he far outranked a bold new light in age, both in terms of when he had been first risen and the life he's lived beforehand. Aeris Sharphawk was practically a newmoult adolescent compared to him, which was at once deeply tiring and wonderfully amusing after all the hell he'd gone through to get here.

(He did not want to admit it, but the banter reminded him of what it was like to be a House Scribe, bickering back and forth with the boldest hatchlings while they tried to climb him as he transcribed notes. He had never been well suited to teach, always too impatient to be good with the youth, but the long silence of being alone could leave the most cantankerous of Eliksni yearning for the clamour of hatchlings around them.)

"You smell nice. Most of the time, that is true. Like death and light rolled into one, each in perfect balance with the other. But now you smell only of death, and it is starting to bother poor Variks." He let his voice tamper out into a pitiful whine, his chest vibrating with a plaintive trill that likely was only partially within a Terran human's hearing range. But by the raised eyebrow he got in return, Aeris had enough Awoken blood in him to get the gist of it, which was enough. "Do not let my hospitality go to waste. Rid yourself of your soiled clothing, and call your little machine to bring the rest."

"Alright, alright," Aeris muttered, already undoing the buckles on his armour. He peeled off his shoulder pads, shivering at the bite of the cold air around him, then shuffled closer to the space heater, leaving a trail of ruined clothing behind him. He had a compressed bodysuit underneath that Variks recognized as some form of silken armour, but without his shoulderpads and chestplates, the slim body underneath was almost comical. Like a new-docked Dreg trying to look larger than they actually were, even if Variks knew all too well the destructive power that such a thin little frame could hold. "Elsie might laugh at me for wearing your cloak, though. If she does, I'm blaming you for it."

"If your pride is so frail that an oversized cloak can threaten it, perhaps you should waste less time defending it. Doing so shall open your schedule to more useful pursuits." Variks clicked his mandibles together, then pushed his cloak into Aeris's arms, watching with satisfaction as he donned the garment with little complaint. It was a size too large for him, sure, but seeing a guardian in the colours of House Judgement felt like a grim conquest over the monster that had made ruin of House Salvation, no matter how friendly that monster may be. "Now go, call your little machine to bring you warm clothes. You dirty my floors enough already.”

"And if you are so eager to cast away your dignity to gain an upper hand on your enemies, then perhaps you should reconsider those you keep as allies,” Aeris rebuked- but the slight smile crossing his face was thankful, the bow he gave respectful. No harm done, at least intentionally, and the softness in his eyes indicated that he had no idea how deeply his words might have cut. “Thank you, Variks. I shall not forget this favor.”

Variks grunted in return, then pointed at the door with one secondary, focusing on pulling out a teapot with his other two hands. Damn Eramis for making a ruin of one of his prosthetics, it made the simple act of brewing tea something that required more concentration than what was technically necessary. At least the distraction was welcome at the moment. “Repay me by dismantling the remnants of House Salvation. I don’t need any more guardians out of commission.”

Another bow, and then Aeris was gone, the lingering stench of machine oil and Vex fluids the only mark that he had been present in the first place. Variks made an effort to ignore it, to forget about the killers that he had allied himself with, the accusing stares of the Eliksni of House Salvation when they had realized that he had turned on them, but the task of scraping together dinner from his meager stash of supplies did not particularly require much effort. Even the clumsy fumblings of his secondaries wasn't enough to pull his attention away from painful memories.

Dinner did not take long. While it warmed on the heater, he locked the door to his bunker, checking the lock thrice over, and tried not to let himself think too hard about what the guardian had said before he left. About how he was now more welcomed by the lightstealers than he was by his own people, the people that he worked so hard to preserve. About how the scraps of his own pride were as hollow as an empty husk, the Variks that had been moulted away in favor of the shrewd scribe that was known now for his treachery.

The timer on the alcove beeped. Variks ran a mechanical palm down the curve of his snout, and sighed. There was work that had to be done. Eramis, for all intents and purposes, might not truely be dead. There were still victims of the darkness fleeing from House Salvation. It would do no good to linger on the ghosts of the past. He was Variks the Loyal, and he would not let old hurts get in the way of what had to be done to save the Eliksni from their final fall.

(Even if deep down, he knew it was a lie.)

[ruthlesslistener]

Aeris and Marcie go on a road trip to throw down with their asshole dad

HSFDGKSDF I WOULD WRITE THAT-

Funnily enough, the story I cooked up for them in the Bloodborne universe is actually kind of the inverse of that! Aeris stalked off to Yharnam to piss off his father instead of killing him because he heard of some miracle cure that he wanted to investigate that his dad heavily and loudly disapproved of, and Marcie came running after him because if she stayed then she'd kill him instead. Which, of course, ended up with Aeris turning into a god-slug at the end, but there certainly was a lot of beast-punching and ranting about spoiled lords who can't keep their dicks out of prostitutes while they mucked about

In the Destiny 2 universe, their father is long dead, and they don't remember anything about their past, but if they did decide to go back to where their ghosts found them, then it would be out of a curiosity to see if more of Marcie's journals survived the blast that killed them both. And if they did find their father's grave, then they'd probs dance on it lmao