#aether ‘verse

[mythrilpencil]

Another spoilery late-plot scene from my WIP with Edge; takes place a few plot points before Rage Against the Void.

Word Count: 967

Lesson One: People First

———

The chamber was coming down. Fast.

Now that the Shard was dislodged from its circuit high above, all of the aether it had been channeling through the supports flanking every wall dispersed in an instant. Metal screeched and stone growled as gravity pulled against the ancient structure.

“Get the Shard!” Ayaan called out over the din.

Edge and Ayaan ran. For a human, Ayaan was fast. But Edge was faster. Trained on the Shard, he dashed across the chamber, dancing across the giant slabs of stone even as cracks snaked through them and the flat floor became a shifting obstacle course. Some went sideways. Some  fell into the depths below. Some jolted upwards, no longer weighed down by circuitry beneath them.

The Shard hit the floor with a crack and a pulse of loose aether. The storm it held within its crystal shell started to flicker through the cracks. 

Almost there…almost—

A metal pillar fell behind Edge. Ayaan shouted.

Edge glanced behind him. Then slid to a stop.

Ayaan was several slabs behind him. And was now pinned beneath a metal pillar.

Edge called out, “Ayaan!”

Another crack of stone and screech of metal pierced the air as another pillar fell. This one grazing the slab that the Shard had fallen to. That slab started to tilt.

Edge glanced back and forth between Ayaan and the Shard. 

Ayaan looked up from trying to pry himself free. From this distance, only the barest glint of his gold eyes pierced the churning dust. “What are you waiting for!?” he shouted, waving a free hand out at Edge, “Get the Shard and get out of here!”

Edge looked back at the Shard. Another crack split its crystal shell; another wisp of angry aether licked through the air like a snake finally freed from a cage. 

What would Zenith do?

In Edge’s moment of hesitation, the slabs between him and Ayaan collapsed. Ayaan’s slab started to tilt, weighed down by the metal pillar and teetering on the frail support beam underneath. 

Edge tore his focus away from the Shard. 

Lesson one: people first.

Edge raced across his slab and jumped. From slab fragment to slab fragment he leaped.

But that still didn’t get him close enough to Ayaan.

He was running out of time.

Help me out here, Sparkles, Edge demanded, You said I teleported before; how do I do it again?

<<All I know is you traveled as an Aether Stream, which is how I noticed you in the first place. I’m interested to see how you do it consciously.>>

Edge growled. Real helpful.

All he perceived from the void in his mind was an equivalent of a shrug. Fine then.

Edge scanned everything around him. The ground kept shifting and shaking as more and more slabs collapsed. 

His scans picked up on flows of aether, released by the now-defunct circuitry in the metal pillars. An angry storm of waves flowed outwards from the Shard. Some magnetized towards Edge’s core. And the more he noticed those waves, the more aether followed them towards him.

Edge focused on that aether flow, and focused on Ayaan prying himself free from the metal pillar. The aether traced his focus like metal wires tracing Vidya’s will, snaking between him and Ayaan.

“Traveled as an Aether Stream”, huh?

Edge mentally pulled on that aether flow, dipped into the void in his subconscious, and directed the flow of his own aether in his systems outwards. His core’s thrumming crescendoed.

GO!

He jumped forward, and for the space between seconds he didn’t exist.

Then he landed on the edge of Ayaan’s slab.

Ayaan’s head snapped up. “Wh—How—!?”

Edge didn’t answer; he just started shoving at the metal pillar pinning Ayaan in place.

“Edge! What are you doing!?” Ayaan demanded.

“What’s it look like I’m doing?” Edge snapped back, grimacing as he kicked and kicked against the pillar. Slowly it started budging. But it wasn’t budging fast enough.

Edge summoned his crossbow and started shooting at the weak points in the pillar. The metal warped and bent. Finally it started to bend away from Ayaan.

But the shocks of Edge’s efforts rocked the slab. Stone grated against stone as the slab tilted past a critical angle. And started slipping.

Ayaan pushed against Edge’s leg. “What are you doing, you idiot?! Go get the Shard!”

“No!” Edge bent over and shoved at the pillar.

“Listen! I’m done for! Go—”

“No! No one is dying here! Not in my unit, not on my watch!”

Edge shouted as he finally shoved the pillar away. The metal screamed against his effort, but its screams faded beneath the din as it rolled off the tilting slab.

The slab rocked. Edge barely kept his balance enough to grab Ayaan before they both could fall.

Edge snapped his focus to the Aether Streams again. He latched onto the closest flow, and pulled his own aether and on the faint signal he could sense from Ayaan towards it. 

Out. They needed out. Somewhere higher up, somewhere safer.

There! A ledge about halfway up the wall, where a bridge across this chamber once connected. The aether flow Edge had latched onto snaked up towards the ledge like a stray current in a river.

Edge pulled Ayaan up, and despite the cry of pain from his core, he leapt upwards as he connected with the current.

They both landed on the ledge, collapsed against the stable stone. 

Ayaan levered himself up to his elbows first, gasping. “What—How? Why?”

Everything in Edge’s systems, down to the finest micro fracture, screamed as his frame shook and his core raggedly pulsed. Damage reports and overload warnings pelted his subconscious. He gasped for breath. But between gasps he squinted at Ayaan and repeated Zenith’s words, “Lesson one…people first.”

———

For this week’s prompt courtesy of @flashfictionfridayofficial!

Tagging: @jacqueswriteblrlibrary

[mythrilpencil]

Edge and his story were originally inspired by a crossover fanfic AU I was gonna write at one point where Axl from Megaman X became a Planeswalker during the Elf Wars and ended up in Kaladesh.

I never did get around to writing that story, and I let it sit on the back burner for quite a while until I revisited the concept. First I figured out what a D&D character based on this Planeswalker!Axl would be. Eventually I decided the character would be a Hexblade Warlock, specifically with the Invocation that would let him have a crossbow as his summonable weapon.

Then I realized I could adapt this character and elements of the original fanfic plot into a story in my broader Aether ‘Verse. And the worldbuilding required to make that work actually filled in a lot of holes in the foundational worldbuilding at the time.

So yeah: Edge is originally based on a more mature Axl and the world he ends up in is originally inspired by Kaladesh (and thus by India).

Is your oc based off of anything?

[pycth]

Big stretch :)

Was simply in my missing Michael hours last night<3

Bonus—

[sacred-coffin]

Today I present you thoughts on elemental demon ghoul magic. First of all. I think it's nothing grand or exciting, in my opinion. It's mostly about the imagery & the aesthetic for me, not so much for utility or whatever

Fire ghouls: I like to think they can snap their fingers and make a flame like a little lighter. Because it's awesome. I think they tend to have a higher body temp/radiate more heat than a normal person. Alpha is especially warm, whereas Dewdrop & Ifrit are only mildly warm. Sometimes they puff out little clouds of smoke when they huff or get angry. I like to depict them with heat vents sometimes, so those might smoke too.

Water ghouls: they are so DAMP. Water condenses on their skin constantly. Some more than others, of course, but I haven't thought much about how and who. Chain's hair seems to always be a little damp. Also ofc I think they have gills :3 sometimes I like to think of them growing fins in the water, but idk. Either way they don't really have fins when they're on land.

Air: I think they can cause subtle shifts or changes in the air around them; usually unconsciously. One of my favorite thoughts is that the air pressure in a room increases when Cumulus gets mad LOL. I also think they tend to be light/softer than other ghouls, but I'm not super sold on that. I think sometimes the know what the weather might be like, or when a storm is going to roll in. If it's a lightning storm, Cirrus is prone to accidentally shocking people.

Earth: ok first of all I think they're rocks. Sorry. I don't vibe with them being plant guys :( anyways. i think if they're mad and stomp their feet, sometimes the ground can crack if it's like stone. Sometimes when Mountain laughs too hard, the ground around him tremors a bit. they can identify any rock by touch, sight, taste, whatever. and also they grow rocks on their body, but when they're topside the rocks grow at the same rate they do in reality. which is very. very. very. slowly. some stop growing entirely! but it's kind of impossible to notice. the earth ghouls probably notice though.

Quintessence: do you remember when you would wave your hand in front of the big box tv and you could feel the static? I think quint ghouls feel like that sometime. some strange fuzzy feeling. i think they sometimes give off this aura of unease to people who don't know them. they feel like they shouldn't be here. but i also think they just know things sometimes. Omega has a pretty good read on people's emotions, sometimes they bleed into his own. Aether is pretty good at catching people before they have an accident. Phantom seems to always know the right thing to say (although usually it's just the most optimal joke)

For multi ghouls, they kind of end up having a collection of these traits, but it has a lot of variation. Swiss has a little bit of everything, whereas Aurora has more air ghoul traits and almost no fire ghoul traits.

This is just a little taste of ideas that I have, but I think they get to the core of how I feel about their magic.

[phoebussmintheus]

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ⚜ Princeps, Evander, Caligula.

This is a yandere/obslove account. If you don't like it, ignore. Feel free to block but don't report, please.

"Beware the Ides"

⚔ -No directed posts unless stated.

⚔ -7teen, homoromantic, bisexual. He/him/it/that.

⚔ -I tend to overshare and be over-friendly, tell me if it bothers you.

⚔ -Asks open. The princeps is opening court. Petition me. DM me, whatever you want.

﴾ Lifestyle Jirai, horror fan, self taught classics student, pagan/Hellenic polytheist, mlm, yan4yan. ﴿‏

I block freely.

Ocdaf, Lsmt, Xaml, Cswi, Ecad, Type 3, Obsession type, Monopoly type, Removal type, Training type, Loneliness induction type, Manipulative type.

"Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading."

Tags:

#dead languages do bite - rantings about academia

#scribbled on the temple wall - asks

#devotions in dactyls - love posts

#veni vidi et insanivi - reposts

#god watched me grow strange - vent

#haunting the flesh I was given - original posts

#socratic dialogue with myself - losing it on air

#deus ex blogina - completely unrelated

#ex nihilo ars - drawings

#the ordinary seen - photos

#the curse I choose - bane of my existence (bff)

#object of my affliction - bff

#amici principis - mutuals tag

#letters from the aether - anons

#before the name there was verse - lyrics

Anons: 🪽

To be added to.

[can-of-pringles]

More Nameless Ghoul designs! Alpha, Omega, Mist, Aether, and Sunshine

Designs explained under the cut

Both Alpha and Omega are ancient ghouls, so their forms aren't as human-looking as newer ghouls. They do have mouths but you can only see them when they open them.

Alpha's hair is supposed to look very fiery. And I guess his eyes are a little more serpant-looking than Omega's.

Omega is kinda galaxy inspired I realize now. His eyes are a little more human-looking (if you squint) because he's a bit more humanoid in terms of emotions and mannerisms(?) I also gave him freckles.

Mist is supposed to look slightly like she's always covered in water? In terms of skin tone somewhat, or maybe cold-blooded is a more correct term. She definitely doesn't look as human as Rain, but she looks more human than Alpha and Omega do.

Aether... for some reason is accidentally giving youtuber vibes? Idk maybe it's just me. He keeps his hair short but sometimes grows it out to a mohawk. Of course, he has bat ears. He also has two different pupils.

Sunshine is kinda equine inspired (like my Aurora design) she's based on a Palomino paint horse.

[mitsame]

some spiders

[crystal-verse]

sae'pheli'ehva trivia time! this is related to a worldbuilding ramble for another time, but the "sae" part of his name refers to birth order; he is the fourth-born child to his parents, and his twin, ra'naive'khale (aka k'naive), is the fifth-born.

his oldest sister is k'leytai (canon character i'm yoinking), who's also named a'leytai'ahma in my au.

the next two are to'rahi'tahye and li'yhisa'ahma, twins who'd died of illness. rahi was the older twin, yhisa the younger.

then there's sae'pheli'ehva, and his twin, ra'naive'khale.

so! he has two living siblings, leytai and naive, but pheli had at one point a total of four siblings.

(mehka does not count as a sibling, as she is their cousin on their father's side, for all her closeness to pheli)

[tenebriism]

@ironbloodcd liked for a shippy one-liner :

" ... ignore them. They're just... saying all that to tease. " And it's working, else he wouldn't be hastening to put DISTANCE betwixt them and the old ladies giggling up a storm just behind them.

[tallbluelady]

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for...

[decoysouled]

So I've decided on how I'll be handling Aether's HSR verse in relation to the story of Genshin Impact itself. Originally, I was going to keep them separate, but I figured a way to do that while still writing the impact it had on him.

The storyline has taken place an extremely long time ago, to the point that Aether's memory of the people he once met there has long-since faded. As time goes on, Aether tends to forget events & people from far in the past. As well, in the main timeline of his verse, Teyvat itself is a planet that no longer exists.

Following their departure from Teyvat, Aether & Lumine continued to travel together for a time. Since leaving their homeworld so long ago, rarely had he seen new worlds without her at his side & his travels in Teyvat were the first time he had made his own connections without her.

Having some sort of separation between them had helped him realise he had little identity outside of what it meant to be her brother & to help people, a feeling that Aether didn't wish to return to. The longer they spent travelling after leaving Teyvat, the more he realised he'd preferred to be alone.

He also came to the conclusion they no longer hold the trust in each other they once did, as they had been completely opposed during their journeys. No longer did they see eye-to-eye on things & while that doesn't mean he loves her any less, he feels that Teyvat was a turning point they can't go back from, as things had changed.

Aether didn't draw Akivili's gaze until after he departed from Teyvat, having had to rely on his own power before then. While Aether isn't clear on what journey drew THEIR gaze, it was close enough to the time that he suspects his exploration of Teyvat may have had something to do with it, although he's not certain.

From time to time, he does still travel to new worlds with Lumine, but he has long-since preferred to travel with the Astral Express & after THEIR disappearance, he has spent more & more time travelling alone. It's only when HSR canon begins that he slowly makes more of an effort to return to travelling somewhat alongside the crew.

[mythrilpencil]

Day 5 of @ocweek: Setting: Inside

Edge’s friend Vidya (left) is an artificer—a metalweaver, at that. She was the first person Edge met in this world, and was the one who patched him up. They become good friends over the course of the story, and he hangs out in her workshop a lot.

[the-storm-chaser]

//If running with the logic that vanilla Sky is essentially a Kensei monk...is Elder Verse a multi-class into Storm Sorcerer, or Tempest Domain Cleric?

[house-of-tales]

@wildrift

"Credo, o que te aconteceu?" parou Aether no meio do caminho dele, ficou até meio preocupado depois de ver ele com essa cara.

[sacred-coffin]

We all agree that Aether is like a service top right. Like his favorite thing to do is whatever makes his sex partner(s) happiest, right? right?

Aether's the guy people go to when they're like "Man I really want to try this new thing, but I don't think anyone else is really into it..." Not to worry! Aether will handle this. This is on account of him being a sweetie pea.

[cloudyxmuses]

Sta.rde.w mods that add characters from other games can be so funny sometimes. I have wayyyyy too much fun with them gdfjdshfhbdjs