#aetherwatch

[rosettevaleria]

Day 26: Break a Leg

Rosette stood in front of the full length mirror, smoothing the midnight blue silk across her abdomen and hips. She turned to the right, checking her side profile and then did the same for the other side. Her hair was perfectly coiffed, twisted up in a knot at the base of her skull with ebony ringlets falling from it.

She carefully adjusted one that fell in her face, her kohled cerulean eyes following her movements in the mirror. She took a deep breath and began to pull on the white silk gloves that went with it. It was an important night: she had to gather as much information as she possibly could about the business partner Alistair was working with now - both of them taking aim at her.

She had a part to play, people to flirt with and palms to grease. She hated doing this and, at this point, she was grateful that Landon was away. She would be incredibly tempted to bring him with her, to fend off the appraising looks and the salacious leers. Like she was a prize to win, a ripe peach to pick from a tree to add to their fruit bowl.

The reflection in the mirror didn’t move with her when she pulled the gloves on, ruby red lips and the Other Rosette’s cerulean eyes flickered black briefly. “Break a leg, girl.” Rosette stiffened and paid the reflection little heed, walking out of her room and through the house that she owned in the Goblet. It will go away if I ignore it, she thought as her heels clicked against the wooden floor.

[healeremeline]

Loss, anger, (ooc pic for funsies), and then a dialogue with the enemy.  The opening of the new campaign and the beginning of a new chapter for Aetherwatch begins. 

[aetherwatchsociety]

The Doctor Is In! 1/14 @8pm EST

@mateusrpcalendar​ @ffxiv-crystal-rp​ @mooglemeet​ for signal boost!

[giest-works]

Safi Vallon, Hedge Mage of the @aetherwatchsociety. Miqo’te Healer and a kindred spirit to the Twelveswood... more than she may even realize...

A lot of fun doing this! I played with some new colouring techniques. Click for best image quality. 

[leaping-layla]

Where they stand - Layla Locklear

Bold for the main responses, italics for conditional/complicated

PLACE IN SOCIETY

✖ FINANCIAL – wealthy  / moderate / poor / in poverty

✖ MEDICAL – fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / deceased

✖ CLASS OR CASTE – upper / lower / middle / working / unsure

✖ EDUCATION – qualified / unqualified / studying

FAMILY

✖ MARITAL STATUS – married, happily / married, unhappily / engaged  / partnered / divorced / widow or widower / separated / single / it’s complicated

✖ CHILDREN – has children / no children / wants children / adopted children

✖ FAMILY – close with siblings / not close with siblings / has no siblings / siblings are deceased / it’s complicated

✖ AFFILIATION – orphaned / adopted / disowned / raised by both parents / other

TRAITS & TENDENCIES

✖ disorganized / organized / in between

✖ close-minded / open-minded / in between

✖ cautious / reckless / in between

✖ patient / impatient / in between

✖ outspoken / reserved / in between

✖ leader / follower / in between

✖ sympathetic / unsympathetic / in between

✖ optimistic / pessimistic / in between

✖ hardworking / lazy / in between

✖ cultured / uncultured / in between

✖ loyal / disloyal / in between

✖ faithful / unfaithful / in between

SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION

✖ SEXUALITY – heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual / omnisexual / demisexual

✖ SEX – sex repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable

✖ ROMANCE – romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable

✖ SEXUALLY – sexually adventurous / sex experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious / uninterested

ABILITIES

✖ COMBAT SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

✖ LITERACY SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

✖ ARTISTIC SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

✖ TECHNICAL SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

Tagged by @blackmagesol​ - but most everyone else was tagged too! SO, do it if you wanna! :D

[aurora-tsuki]

{A Far Off Dream}

 A young girl, with long black hair and white horns, stands next to a young man, with deep green hair and black horns. They are both dressed in fine clothing, looking among others that sit at a table, all dressed in fine silk robes. They bow in greeting and the young girl and young man take  a seat. The young girl will pull out a deck of cards covered in stars, showing it to those in the fine silk as the young man begins to pour the wine with a “oh no, I’ll take care of it, watch the show,”

The cards are laid on the table. With dramatic flipping of the cards, to the oo’s and ah’s of the guests in fine, as a story of the stars was woven from the young girl’s reading of the delicate card images…

It was terribly easy to use the card reading as a cover, really. A quick switch of the wine as the young man poured the deep red liquid into the goblets. In mere minutes they would sink to the ground, their silk robes like a gentle blanket over their dead bodies.

The young girl and the young man would take their belongings and exit silently…

The scene would change. Fire and earth crashing around the young girl and the young man. Mechanical beasts fought the flood of masses. Soldiers in armor on both sides.

They stood tall and straight, an impenetrable force. As soldiers broke past the lines to target the girl, the young man, equipped with two dark blades, fought swiftly with deadly precision as she calculated the sky, cards in her hands. She would speak orders into the linkshell attached to her horn, and the giant mechanical beasts would turn and adjust to her commands.

The young girl with long dark hair would be without the young man this time. She lies on the ground, covered in blood. Hers or someone else's, it is unclear. Her face is dirt-covered and tear-stained, eyes staring up at the stars. Then, there would be a ghost standing over her, looking down, inspecting. The ghost had soft white hair and sad blue eyes, but the girl with black hair recognized who it was… her own ghost. 

With hands reaching up, she grasped at the ghost, coughing up blood as she tried to move. The ghost would kneel down… and silently wrap its hands around her neck. And she would cease breathing.

But of course, as the girl with ghost-white hair and bright blue eyes woke up with a stretch -- carefully resetting the plushies she had arranged around herself -- Saphyra would shake away the headache she always woke up with. And the dream would be forgotten. It always was. 

[kaynetsuki]

Day 5: Cutting Corners

Kayne sat in the kitchen of Aetherwatch, munching on some cookies the namazu cook had made. He was only slightly bleeding from the fight with the little shite this time, knowing full well how to dodge the brunt of the blunderbuss someone had foolishly given the temperamental fish man. His eyes flicked up as someone else entered the kitchen, a bookish male Raen who eyed Kayne’s plate. The Xalea rumbled a warning and pulled his prize closer, nodding to a separate plate that sat on the counter untouched. The Raen started in on some tangent or another about his current subject of fascination as he munched on the free cookies and Kayne quickly tuned the other Au Ra out, very much used to these unprompted lectures by now, besides it was only a matter of time.

Sure enough only a few minutes had passed before the Raen gave Kayne a pained look, and then quickly looked to the plate on the counter with something close to panic. “Kayne.... who did you say made these cookies?”

Kayne couldn’t stop the smug grin that formed as he oh so innocently replied. “Rosette.”

As the Raen darted from the room, proclaiming the Xaela’s cruelty to the house, Kayne munched on another of his good cookies, shifting the grin to the namazu. Sure cinnamon and cayenne might look similar on the labels, and they may have been out of the former, but it was never a good idea to cut corners when cooking.

[thegreenrabbit]

Day 1: Cross

Gawain, the self proclaimed Green, sat at the Carbuncle themed desk under the Carbuncle themed chandelier and leaned back in the Carbuncle themed chair.

Truthfully, he found the paraphernalia excessive at best, gauche at worst, but he was not going to complain about the decor in otherwise free boarding now that he finally managed to settle in a room in the House.

(And were that he truthful with himself, the gifts from Rosette were growing on him - not one for such kinds of material possessions and not one to walk around in Carbuncle slippers, but the kindness of the act made it hard not to attach)

(But Gawain was not truthful with himself, and had hidden this items in his personal space, the bed chambers through the hinged bookshelves, or set them up in the library to look as if they had always been there and not something of his choosing.)

All of these thoughts and unthoughts beckoned to take his attention away from the documents that splayed across his desk. Though a member of Aetherwatch Society, he still took on contracts for requisitions of various odds and ends, from the Grand Companies and the Gleaners of Sharlaya alike.

Sorting through this paperwork he was stacking the merchant copies that would need sign and return and his personal copies to keep for records neatly. All of these documents would look perfectly identical from its pair, down to the stamped like signature of someone who signed so much. There was only one difference:

On the personal copies the surname Fjrnson was always crossed out.

[risingshadownet]

Review: The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes

Tyler Hayes' The Imaginary Corpse was published by Angry Robot Books in September 2019. Information about Tyler Hayes: Tyler Hayes is a science fiction and fantasy writer from Northern California. He writes stories he hopes will show people that not only are we not alone in this terrifying world, but we might just make things better. His fiction has appeared online and in print in anthologies from Alliteration Ink, Graveside Tales, and Aetherwatch. The Imaginary Corpse is Tyler's debut novel. Information about The Imaginary Corpse: A dinosaur detective in the land of unwanted ideas battles trauma, anxiety, and the first serial killer of imaginary friends. Most ideas fade away when we’re done with them. Some we love enough to become Real. But what about the ones we love, and walk away from? Tippy the triceratops was once a little girl’s imaginary friend, a dinosaur detective who could help her make sense of the world. But when her father died, Tippy fell into the Stillreal, the underbelly of the Imagination, where discarded ideas go when they’re too Real to disappear. Now, he passes time doing detective work for other unwanted ideas - until Tippy runs into the Man in the Coat, a nightmare monster who can do the impossible: kill an idea permanently. Now Tippy must overcome his own trauma and solve the case, before there’s nothing left but imaginary corpses. REVIEW: THE IMAGINARY CORPSE BY TYLER HAYER Read More ... https://www.risingshadow.net/articles/reviews/976-review-the-imaginary-corpse-by-tyler-hayes

[rosettevaleria]

Day 22: Veracity

The reflection smiled back at me as I stared into the polished glass, arms braced against the counter top where the water ran freely into the wash basin. We shared the same ebony hair with more and more strands of silver weaved into it from years of stress and attempts at aether use. The same freckles adorned the bridge of our nose and cheekbones, the same scar from Alistair’s signet ring woven through them.

The woman smirked, an expression that I did not return. Instead, I remained stone-faced with a faint furrow between my brows. I was covered in blood from the recent Hunt that I was called to - I tried to spare my people from some of the heavier duties as Midnighters. They needn’t know. “They needn’t know, hm?” My reflection parroted back at me as I bent down and began washing the blood from my face. Some of it was mine, the cut in my scalp had bleed like a fucking waterfall. Some of it was from our quarry, a mage that had brokered far too many deals with voidsent and ended up sacrificing a young woman who was just barely 16 summers. The rest of the sticky, flaky substance was the remnants of another Hunter - Wisp, had been his moniker.

The voidsent that had carved his chest open as he attempted to be the group’s shield was an image that I could still see on the back of my eyelids. How long would that be there? 

“Likely for the next several weeks,” the Other Me idly replied, a soft laugh coming from her. “What will you tell Jac when you cannot sleep?”

“That the night terrors are back.”

“Lie.”

My gaze snapped up at her and I countered sharply, “Truth.”

The Other Me snorted derisively, “If you’re going to argue with me over a technicality, then you have really cracked, haven’t you?”

I rolled my eyes and glared at her, my face dripping with red-tinted water as it drip-drip-dripped into the wash basin. “Fuck off, whore.”

I blinked and the Other Me was gone, leaving the mirror with just...Me.

I started to dry my face with a dark towel, not knowing if Landon would be home yet. Still time to hide the evidence and find a healing potion for the slash on my skull. Hopefully it would help the pounding headache. “Twelve, I fucking hate mirrors.” I shut off the light.

[rosettevaleria]

Day 25: Vicissitudes (Make Up Day)

Rosette stared at Murdock’s report, tilting her head a little and her eyes narrowed.

Finally. Finally her enemy made a move. No more waiting. Not more biding of time.

Finally, she could begin to work on avenging Aurora. She would ensure that his luck would turn into the worst vicissitude he’d ever known.

She grabbed a box of red hair dye and a hair growth potion. Time to go back into her undercover work...

[rosettevaleria]

Day 14: Attrition

Years.

It had been years since Alaric’s fuckery with mirrors and, every now and then, she still caught herself in a deep rooted fear as she met her own gaze in her reflection. Rosette could still remember the woman on the other side changing, sneering at her as cerulean eyes turned to silvered mirrors.

She could still hear the whispered ‘hello?’ and ‘g o o d b y e’ echo in her head. Even now she had difficulty meeting her own gaze in the mirror - but she forced herself to do it. She no longer draped a cloth over every mirror in home, that had took practice.

Slowly, she was wearing down her own phobia. Reminding herself that Alaric was dead, shattered into pieces and gone from this world. It took so much fucking work that she found the small hiccups annoyed her. That the memories popping into her head as she was brushing her teeth in the morning, nearly making her choked on her own toothpaste would take her by surprise. They would anger her.

To the point she had likely spent hundreds of gil replacing mirrors when her fist connected with the polished glass in frustration, shattering it and slicing open her knuckles. 

Even then, shattering it reminded her that she had the power now. That she was in possession of her own mind, her own body. That she no longer had any reason to fear. It was a glorious and empowering feeling, to know that she could shake off that last vestiges of that evil creature’s power. That she would sever his last connection to the world of the living.

It helped, too, that sometimes in the morning Landon would come up behind her as she prepared for the day. He would slide his arms around her from behind, bare from the waist up and she could feel the warm of his skin against her back through her shirt or dress. That he would embrace her and press a sleepy kiss to her shoulder, then rest his face in her neck with a husky, mumbled morning greeting.

When she saw that in the mirror for the first time, seeing the good and warmth and love reflected back at her...

It was the final nail in Alaric’s coffin. 

[leaping-layla]

Fun Times <3

@saphyra-tsuki​ @rosettevaleria​ @kayneblackfire​ @aetherwatchsociety​

Just a small screenshot dump from some fun RP tonight! I love these people. <3

[healeremeline]

New hair, new Midnighter gear, new personal plot starting. Going to be a fun month!

[leaping-layla]

And just like that, he was gone.

He’d been there since she was just a young thing, sweet, innocent, ignorant of the troubles of the world. He too had been innocent. Inquisitive and searching to learn. It was those small things that made her laugh, the things that sent the peels of childish giggles echoing through the house that he was most interested in. All he had ever wanted to do was protect her, make her smile.

She had taken to the spell quickly, far faster than most children her age should of. But it was this fact that made her mother push her so hard. “Most girls your age have their head int he clouds, Layla. Playing with dolls. Look at you, a Carbuncle at your side already.” She had smiled so brightly, so wide, and with such admiration.

It became the one thing she wanted to achieve, again, and again.

In one smooth, even motion, Duke had been ripped from the world. Right before her eyes. This time, it had been different. Every time something happened to him in battle, there was a part of her that cinched up inside, a part of her that ached. But each night, when she had returned home and called on him again… He was there.

This time, she knew, would be different. Nothing had been the same here. The sound he had made. The hole in her chest. He did not belong to her anymore.

There was laughter, talking all around her, and then… Rose screamed. The sound was so loud. Her eyes squeezed shut, she wouldn’t look. She couldn’t look. The scraping of the metal box was moving away from her now, Rose’s muffled screams moving with it.

He’d put her in the box… He was taking her someplace… She would… She had too…

And then she slept.

[healeremeline]

Found a new place to hide from Rosette (jk)