#Xerxien Wings AU

[highabovethecloudssomewhere]

the WINGS THE WINGS THE WINGS tell me more about. the wings

👏 👏 OKAY SO THE WINGS

I’m still hashing out the finer details on this AU and I’d love to write something for it one of these days but the long and short of it goes like this:

The people of Xerxies are descendants of an ancient minor deity/eldritch being, and the people of Xerxies through bloodline inherit a pair of wings. The wings exist in a pocket-dimension and can be manifested or banished as their person wills.

Edward and Alphonse, being half-Xerxien, were born with a set of Xerxian wings. It takes time to learn how to manifest/banish the wings in and out of the pocket-dimension, so they just sort of let the wings do whatever they wanted for most of their early childhood. Hohenheim kept his wings to himself while the two of them were growing up because the memories of his people were too much to bear. Once he left, Edward and Alphonse started keeping their wings to themselves more often too.

Since Edward and Alphonse are only half-Xerxien, their wings do require the occasional maintenance (preening) and sometimes Edward struggles to control whether they appear or disappear (reservations against Hohenheim, wings responding to his emotional state/impulsiveness, etc). He’s more torn on his wings, but tolerates them because it’s something he has in common with Alphonse and Alphonse loves their wings. 

Then their mother died. Then they tried to bring her back. Alphonse lost his body; Edward lost his arm and his leg. Edward refused to bring out his wings after that, no matter how many times Alphonse urged him. What did it matter, anyway? Alphonse’s wings were taken along with his body. Hohenheim was never coming back and neither was Mom.

For years, Edward lived as a grounded Icarus.

Then there was the ‘incident.’ Edward reacted without thinking, because a moment’s hesitation meant life or death, and his wings manifested before he could think. But something was wrong. He kicked off the pavement, his arm outstretched, only to come slamming back down. That was when he realized the Gate was cruel beyond coincidence. 

It’d taken one of his wings—just one—to make sure he never forgets that he used to be able to fly. 

(This marked the first time Mustang and his team saw Edward’s wings. Edward had never so much as mentioned them before, but Mustang heard stories of the ancient civilization that flew on wings made of comet tails and stars.) 

(It was supposed to be a myth. It isn’t.)

— Aaaand that’s what I’ve got on this AU so far. TL;DR Edward somehow needs even more hugs

#Fullmetal alchemist #Edward Elric #Xerxien Wings AU #Fma #I have several thoughts on this that I cannot articulate at the moment #but if you guys have any questions about it I’d love to hear your thoughts! #this has been a fun AU to work on artistically #I freaking love wings #cloud rambles #cloud draws #dismemberment #tw dismemberment #Sort of #tagging just in case #Answered ask