#which is why its an au | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

proxycrit · 3 months

Text

Part 1 / Part 2

Emmet remembers when he and Ingo first brought Elesa to explore Celestial Tower, back when they were fourteen and thought they were immortal.

“Allegedly, the bell chime will bring ghosts home”, ingo had told emmet with the pompous knowing energy of a child who read way too much brochures. “It’s culturally significant! We must ring it.”

“Hmmm,” emmet had responded suspiciously. “Brother. The bell is at the top of the tower.” The implication stands: Ingo, there are thirty flights of stairs between here and the top, and no elevator to speak of.

Don’t be a coward, Litwick had told Emmet with the blaise tone of somebody who’s going to be piggy backing off of somebody else. Go ring the bell. Tynamo, sensing a litten fight, floated towards a loitering blitzle.

Ingo turns his lilipup eyes on Elesa, who’s squinting at the carved stone faces of the front door.

“Elesa? What do you think?”

Elesa thinks. She shrugs. “We already made our way here,” she said in accented galarian. “Might as well make it the rest of the way. Ganbatte!”

Emmet sighs. “This is a mistake,” he tells the two in exhaustive patience, but lets himself be dragged into the building.

Last time the twins were here, Ingo caught litwick— but not before she managed to nab a good chunk of Emmet’s soul. It’s not terrible; he felt fatigued for a week and bounced back pretty quickly, but it was the principle of the whole situation— celestial tower’s a pain in the ass and Emmet will stand by that until the day he dies.

Like right now.

The map isn’t working. Emmet checked it once. He’s checked it twice. He’s taken out his pen and written on it, which he would usually never do but desperate times call for desperate measures. The compass he brought spins useless circles. It’s like chargestone cave up here, but worse because instead if electric pokemon it’s all ghosts.

“We’re lost, yyup yup!” He announced to the crew. “I vote we eat Ingo first.”

“I love you too,” Ingo told Emmet placidly. “But we all know between the two of us, you’re the tastier one.” Litwick gives Emmet a thumbs up. Emmet gasps in mock affront.

“Elesa, help!”

Elesa gives the two of them a wary look. It took two floors for her to realize this is not just a weird temple with strange rocks, but a full out graveyard. She’s not very happy about that development.

“Don’t drag me into this,” she tells them. “Teme wa urusaii.”

“I will take that as a compliment,” Ingo reports back.

Emmet, who’s cheerfully struggles with Galarian on a good day, simply gives her a thumbs up.

The three painstakingly crawl their way up. And up. If all else fails, Emmet told himself, at least they can orient themselves towards high ground.

“We’re like pidoves,” Ingo gasps. He has fallen behind them on the stairs, with Emmet taking the lead through sheer spite despite his legs going numb on floor twenty two. “We, hah, we are attracted by the magnet of the bell, like, like probopass-“

“I am emmet! You are not making, sense!” Emmet called back. Elesa, who’s stuck between them and looking two steps from perpetual collapse, giggles.

“No, no hear me out, Ingo wheezes. “What if the bell’s a magnetic pole? And that’s why your compass doesn’t wo, woo, hahh, work.”

Emmet stops to rest, just because Ingo is using precious breathing air to infodump. Elesa gratefully slumps against the railing. Tynamo and litwick, lazy in their still small size, have settled on a weary blitzle and look very smug doing so. (Emmet is not jealous, he tells himself. Emmet is also lying.)

“The bell’s important,” Ingo had repeated.

“Okay,” Elesa responds. “If it’s important to you, then it’s important to us.”

And Emmet finds that he agrees with Elesa. Partially because they crawled up twenty fucking three flights of stairs, but also because Ingo thinks this is important, so it is.

And here’s the thing—

— emmet doesn’t remember much after that.

The rest of that trip was a blur of exhausted groaning and burning legs, and by the time the trio managed to breach floor thirty, people’s brains have all but dribbled out their ears. Emmet remembers being disgustingly sweaty. He remembers blitzle almost tripping to death and litwick’s swearing. He remembers tynamo sticking to his neck like a damp towel. He remembers Ingo’s excited sneasel smile, and the way the sunset bounced off of Elesa’s hair.

He remembers the brassy ring of the Celestial bell. It sounded like victory.

But it was Elesa’s cackle turned scream as Ingo swiped cold hands down her neck that sounded like home.

—-

So when the conductor at thirty one, lost and disoriented in the Impossible Place, heard the sound of a familiar bell, ringing over and over and over-

-the sound of laughter-

-EMMET! Elesa cried-

-like a homing pidove, the conductor, thinks nonsensically as something in him perks up.

(Emmet had always liked winning, more than anything else, and the sound of victory calls him home.)

—

Elesa catches lightning in a bottle. Elesa, arms outstretched, finds purchase in her brother, and does not let go.

Emmet is so, so cold, Elesa thinks as the wind steals air from her lungs. (That’s okay. She’s already breathless from a terrible business called hope.)

Emmet stares back. His hands flap against Elesa’s jacket. Elesa desperately drinks in his wan face and too wide eyes and his frost bitten lips. In a tiny, meek voice, almost lost to the wind, he asks:

“Are you real?”

Elesa lets out an ugly sob. Her tears whip away in the wind as they fall. Emmet’s frightened countenance turns immediately to alarm. His shaky grasp becomes a solid grip as they spin through the air, cushioned by chandelure’s psychic.

“I think so??” Elesa warbles. She sees Emmet’s eyes dart to her mouth. He’s reading mirroring her, she realizes with giddy delight— it’s such an Emmet thing to do, to read lips, and-

“I am Emmet,” Emmet breathes. His eyes have started to water. “Yyou are Elesa- Oh dragons, Elesa!?“

Elesa reaches. Hesitates.

Emmet grabs elesa by the lapels and crushes her tight against him. Elesa holds on, and the grief and relief in her accumulates into a wet sopping mess. She’s ruining his jacket, she mourns, but its okay because he’s dripping all over hers.

She can’t hear what he’s saying into her shoulder, can’t read what he says, but everything’s okay because every part of her is chiming

You came back

You’re here

I’m not alone anymore.

Around them, the air distorts as Chandelure’s psychic wavers, flutters, and solidifies. Gravity reverses its call as they settle gently on the ground, dust billowing in all directions.

The ghost pokemon drops next to them, shaking so hard the musical clang of glass makes Elesa flinch.

You fucks, Chandelure gasps. DON’T GO LEAPING OFF BUILDINGS, I AM NOT YOUR EMERGENCY PARACHUTE.

“I’m sorry,” Elesa gasps, still giddy from the adrenaline.

AND YOU! Chandelure howls, whirling on Emmet, who’s still staring at the ghost with huge eyes. He’s gripping on to solid ground with the energy of a man who realized he could have been a splat on the ground.

YOU LEFT!

Emmet winces.

You- You left us, you left me-

Ah, ah no, Elesa thinks as golden globules of light shed from Chandelure. This is what a ghost looks like crying.

Emmet holds out his arms. Chandelure drifts into his embrace, and shakes, and shakes, and shakes.

You left me, the ghost pokemon whispers. How dare you. How could you.

“I didn’t mean to,” Emmet whispers. “I’m sorry.”

Stop doing this to me, Chandelure demands. Golden brine joins human tears, like drops of sun trapped in wet glass. Stop going where I can not follow.

And Emmet holds his tongue, because he knows he can not promise staying. Not while Ingo and Eelektross are still in Hisui.

(In the back of Emmet’s hurt and shattered mind is a spark. Synapses connect. The cold breach of the Distortion does nothing to drown out the sudden flare of hope in Emmet’s chest, so great he can not breathe, so strong he can not feel, because there’s a path. A difficult, painful path through the Space that Can Not Be, but a path all the same.)

“Elesa, Chandelure-“ Emmet’s voice breaks. He wants to tell them about Eelektross. He wants to tell them about the terrible past that is Hisui. He wants to explain how the last five months were filled with horror and wonder and fear and hope.

Hope, he thinks. So he says this:

“I know how to get Ingo home.”

NOTES:

AAAAAND THAT’S ALL FOR THIS DRABBLE. ITS OUT NOW. I CAN FINALLY GO BACK TO POSTING HAPPY SHENANIGANS! (Now you know the shape of their story.)

Thanks for reading this monster of a post!

644 notes · View notes

emry-stars-art · 7 months

Text

Find the mer au masterpost here 💕

579 notes · View notes

mossdoesartshit · 2 months

Text

extermination day extermination always irritated vaggie. She had developed a major dislike of it upon being dropped into hell for showing mercy, which shouldve kept her in heaven than get her booted out, but she had found the love of her life here, so she couldnt complain. After the battle during the old hotels time, the exterminations had become far more erratic. sometimes theyd be only a month or so away, sometimes over a year. she had no doubts it was entirely because of lute, which she wasnt too fond of, but what could vaggie realistically do, her old sister in arms had always been a bit of a nutcase. besides, she had bigger fish to worry about right now. she and charlie were doing a headcount of people who had been in the hotel that day, (alastor, husk, nifty, the usual people, along with some hopefully quests to be) and there was one person distinctly missing "do i have to go get him?" vaggie asked, exasparated "come on please? he should be somewhere on the upper floors, i saw him walking up before the bell rang loud, besides you always have your weapon on you!" charlie begged, earning agreed mumblings of the others "If Safety Is Your Concern, Trust Me Vaggie, I Will Be Able To Handle Any Possible Nuisances While You're Getting Mister Bleeding Heart Back" alastor piped up, with that sickeningly sweet grin of his. She rolled her eyes, and groaned out a soft "fiine" as she moved to go up the hotel. Thank Fucking Lucifer that he had installed an elevator into the hotel, because boy howdy if vaggie had had to walk up the flight of stairs just to get Adam she would not have even considered it. Eventually, she found him on the roof, watching the carnage. "come on Adam, i know youre probably so fucking hard about all the destruction and shit, but you wont be safe from them killing you" Adam didnt turn to look at vaggie, instead closing his wings around himself as best he could, and "I can still recognize them you know" "huh?" with one wing, adam pointed down to two exterminators "that right there is lyre, ruthless as ever, but she has that methodical work flow, kind of like a dance. i think they partnered her with a newbie, which is good- well. bad, but. good from a combat standpoint- because she'll get good pointers at the end" vaggie looked down at the next group of exterminators that adam pointed to "over there is janatha, still fumbling with her stabs and pierces as ever. shes in a bigger squad, but they always worked well together, even if theyre a bit chaotic" an explosion blew up relatively near them, and adam looked over to it with sluggish movements "must be lute... say vags-" "vaggie." "-vaggie, do you remember flute?" "huh? you mean lutes sister?" "mmhm, lutes always been pretty ruthless, but that can leave her open at the back, flute would have covered her but. i think she was killed a few exterminations ago, the one that weapons dealer got. i think theyve tried to pair her with others but i always see her alone" vaggie stood there stunned "i. didnt think you were telling the truth when you said you recognized me. i thought you'd been bluffing or that lute had told you, given..." "well, thats the view souls have of me i suppose. liar down to a t. but i do recognize all of them. i just regret that my blind rage cost the lives of several of them and... lutes arm" another explosion closer to them alerted vaggie to grab adams shoulder "come on, charlies going to get worried if you keep me standing here, cant have you getting killed now that shes done so much work on you" "whatever you say vaggie" adam said, solemnly looking behind to where theyd spotted lute, before walking with vaggie to the elevator to get to the more bunkered area

150 notes · View notes

carnivalcarriondiscarded · 9 months

Text

haven't scribbled any Lights Out in a hot second!! take these two scribbles - i wanted to mess around with Wally's hair & try to make a rudimentary ref for him in the au's late stages

#might make a ref for all of them!#once they're all sufficiently Scruffled by their time in the dark #its hard to tell but wally's colors are desaturated / muddled #like look at any vintage puppet - their colors Fade! their felt/fleece is a little scruffy! etc!#they get grimy and prone to tearing. their seams weaken. plush flattens. etc #oh yeah the color on his hand is Chalk Dust #scribble salad #welcome home au #wh lights out au #i realized i wasn't giving him Enough hair #so i made it a little longer. a little fluffier #this scribble's frank is Very freshly awake which is why he barely looks disheveled #he needed to do Something so he decided to brush out wally's rat-nest of a hairstyle #and wally is... unsure how to handle the sudden attention

415 notes · View notes

whomst-the-hell · 2 years

Text

i would like a steddie musicians au fic where eddie is the front man of a popular metal band (obviously) and steve is the lead singer of a pop group (or maybe a more indie djo type deal? doesn’t matter) and they have a very public rivalry, often playing at the same venues/festivals around the same time to “compete”. preferably this is a modern au so they can tweet at eachother and shit.

except actually they’ve been married the Entire time.

the rivalry was an accident — maybe steve mentioned once that he wasnt really into metal, maybe eddie went on one of his conformity’s killing the kids fuck jocks speeches, and the bands were already kind of associated bc theyre from the same town + the thing with the venues, so the comments got taken as vaguepost-y insults abt the other

everyone finds it Hilarious, especially bc, other than continuing to bicker and occasionally tweet at eachother, (its how they flirt lol) they arent actually trying to hide their relationship. its public knowledge that theyre both married, just not to eachother. often the events theyre invited to a) dont appeal to the other or b) theyre both invited so they take advantage of the +1 rules to bring other friends along as well. this means that theres not much opportunity for them to be seen together (they do stay at home dates primarily, bc theyre so often out and surrounded by ppl for work that its nice to just be alone together for a while)

then one of them wins a grammy or smth and they talk abt the other in the speech and maybe kiss. the general public goes Insane and it is Glorious

#steddie #steddie musician au #stranger things #is this inspired by the minyard-josten rivalry?#………#nahhh #btw they purposely co-ordinate their tours to overlap a lot #which is why they play at so many shared venues #ppl think its some kind of competition but actually theyre clingy lmao #eddies band is #corroded coffin #bc i love them #i think steves is robin nancy jonathon and maybe also argyle #they both talk frequently abt some kid named dustin but that just adds fuel to the fire #‘’theyre fighting for custody!’’ no theyre just gay #cough@thedufferbrotherscough

2K notes · View notes

gammija · 1 year

Text

ok since the Magnus Protocol is confirmed AU from tma, and jonny and alex have purposely not said that their voices are not reappearing in TMAGP, consider:

evil AU jon and martin. mostly because I just know jonny and alex would have such a good time acting that out. And also because i want to see a completely unhinged jon and a web!martin used to their full potential damnit

#they're au! so its fine! and also fun!#you get to decide what entity Jon ends up with (eye or not) but im claiming martin for web. gimme.#tmagp #tma #tmu #jonathan #martin #web!martin #why do a sidequel of a horror podcast if youre just gonna give a lil office romance easter egg. yawn/j #joos yaps #im still mulling it over #love that its an AU but i then do actually want au versions of jmart and others #not our jmart ending up in the AU and us catching up with them via Sam and Alice #cause thatd mess with that whole 'ah did they die or not' thing plus. there are too many amazing fanfics that they can't top #tma is still one of the only shows where I genuinely havent read a lot of fic which ks better written/constructed than the source #(ive mostly read fics for mediocre shows i am aware)#but the specific flavor of 'blorbos coming into a new world and learning to cope' is one i don't think they'd be able to capture as nicely #also. they deserve a rest.#but their au counterparts are fresh and ripe for the picking 😈

1K notes · View notes

4lph4kidz · 3 months

Text

been pondering this one for a while and i'm not sure where i stand on it myself so i want to know what people think about this, so (assuming there's no good way to represent hal as an artificial intelligence /non-human entity/extension of dirk):

feel free to share thoughts in the tags & replies!

#ignore the typo in the question. i'm sick.#on my week off. which is fun.#anyway i have thoughts on this as a twin. i wouldn't be opposed to making them twins but it's a Very Different Kind of Conflict #being a twin does mean constantly being compared when ur growing up which does things to ur sense of self but not like That #to clarify i would only count the third option as hal being a distinct personality or seperate character. something with agency #as opposed to exploring dirk's self expression and self hatred through different avenues a la detective pony. bc that's not a Hal #if that makes sense #didn't make 'why are you writing no-sburb aus' an option because i feel like thats a bit mean but tbh its a difficult conflict to translate

122 notes · View notes

hrokkall · 10 months

Note

What's gabriel in this au?

Some loser, probably.

#Gabriel Ultrakill #Rain World Ancients #Ultrakill #Rain World #I CAN POST THIS NOW THAT THE FULL ATTACK IS DONE. NICE pose referenced from Act 1's ending cutscene if that wasn't blatant already #He's as of yet unnamed but I'm working on it. And also somehow not dead. Debatably. It's a crossover AU it's not adhering to RW canon #Anyway very cool style rain world has for its murals! Tried to match it to the best of my ability but my own style definitely bleeds throug #-in places. It happens #ANYWAY the reason why he's an Ancient is just because there seem to be a lot of parallels between Angels in UTKL and Ancients in RW #Both are societies obsessed with remaining free from earthly desire and keeping order; one wishes to ascend and one has already ascended-#-and has to keep it that way lest they feel the wrath of a long-absent god #Looking at the karma murals that represented the deadly sins (ish) kind of solidified that #Plus it means I don't have to take off his helmet which is always a bonus; I don't like unmasking helmeted characters #As a bonus ancients sort of seem birdlike to me? They're meant to look vague but at least two had bird feet so hell yeah. Bird time.#Enough tag talking. Here's the actual sorting tags:#Re: Inbox #Re: Anon #RW UTKL #Hrokkall Art

266 notes · View notes

non-plutonian-druid · 2 months

Text

[ID: a three color drawing (black, white, and teal) in the style of Seth’s illustrations from the Lemony Snicket series All The Wrong Questions. Five and Viktor (both about 13) are seated at the counter of a diner, talking. Luther (in his 20s), who is a patron seated next to them, looks concerned about what he is overhearing. Grace stands behind the counted holding a coffee pot and gazing into space. A missing poster for Ben is taped to the counter. In the mirror behind the counter, a reflection Diego and Patch (both 15) are visible in a booth. End ID]

i really should leave time between art posts for them to breathe and accumulate their fair share of notes, but also i need something to do while im waiting for my onions to caramelize.

In this installment: Five and Viktor meet over breakfast to discuss business, Luther is a Concerned Citizen, Diego and Patch also meet over breakfast to discuss business but in the background, and Grace is NOT a robot and this diner is NOT fully automated no sir. Also as usual Ben's face provides some ambiance, thank you Ben.

#tua #the umbrella academy #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #five hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #grace hargreeves #really? grace hargreeves is the tag? ok #eudora patch #the business is What Is This Dastardly Crime And How Are We - two children - Going To Solve It #i still dont know what the dastardly crime is tho which is exhibit A why i dont write fic #i mean yeah in general its Using Children To Farm Eldritch Tentacle Monsters but what are the actual crimes theyre solving #who knows not me #im doing something very fun here which is that ATWQ has two thematically and plot resonant diners #one of them is where lemony meets with his favorite people to have good food #and the other is a weird noir fully automated one where no one works #with the help of grace's just. whole deal. i can do both at the same time!#as per usual almost forgot #my art #guess who didnt tag this with the au tag and forgot for a full month #meeeeeee #snicket five

87 notes · View notes