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Silver Bloodstains chapter 18: Swanna Lake

Emmet hangs out with his brother and talks to Akari.

ABANDONED WIP WEDNESDAY

This is the second part of the last WIP Wednesday, which I can't link here because I'm writing this in the past and it hasn't been posted yet. I'll fix it later.

Here's the final WIP that I'll be posting in this major batch- I've hope you've enjoyed them this past month or so!

Anyway, this is the outline of the entire fic overall, as well as a scene from later on in the narrative!

Heroes and Villains- Ingo is a Dad Now (Part 2)

Length: 2,132 words

Rating: G

No archive warnings apply

Akari has light powers. (Get it? Light? I’m hilarious) This is a VERY powerful ability as you can do things like lasers and their ilk- but also illusions and invisibility. She can manipulate light which means she can make you see what she wants you to see. The commission obviously really wants her abilities, but she is a stubborn authority defying teenager. With amnesia. Her first memories are waking up in the commission building with them being oh so worried about her :(( and her catching their bad vibes immediately. She plays along though, before eventually breaking out and running away. She ends up being taken in by the (Pearl clan equivalent, I forgot what it was called lol) a few weeks after Ingo and immediately reverse adopts him due to the shared amnesia. Her claim to fame is “well he could be my dad. We don’t have any proof either way >:))” (they don’t particularly look alike) She also super wants to be a villain- but Drayden’s organization is not letting the teenager fight for them. (Except in very specific situations where she is in no danger they just need her illusionary abilities- and Ingo is there to make sure she doesn’t run off to punch someone)

the main plot line is (humorously) her relationship with Emmet. She’s able to easily connect the dots about him being Eeletross and is very not pleased with having a hero that can rat her out hanging around. Of course, they end up getting along just fine, especially because Emmet thinks she’s just paranoid and there’s no way the commission is after her

and then she goes missing

Ingo  is besides himself, praying desperately that it isn’t the commission- but as time passes it becomes increasingly obvious that that’s what happened. Emmet is still in denial of course, and in his free time is looking for the devious criminal that stole his niece away (part of him is tempted to report the crime to the commission in order to get more help looking for her- but he promised, he’s not gunna break that promise) Something that makes this even sadder is that Akari had confessed to Emmet at one point that it was an inevitably. She’s knows that she can’t hide forever, that the commission will find her and take her away eventually- so she’s just enjoying the time she has now before it’s all taken away from her.

And then, months after Akari goes missing, Emmet is assigned to help a new recruit with physical training. It’s Akari.

Emmet finds a way to pull her aside and goes “what are you doing here??? Ingo’s worried sick! I thought you hated it here!” But Akari just kinda looks at him and is like “how do you know I don’t like the commission!?! Are you a mind reader??? And who’s Ingo?”

and then Emmet gets to have a crisis because a) she was right all along and b) she got her memory wiped again

Turns out that this is just a thing that happens with Akari!! She’s very hard to manipulate the old fashion way so they’ve had to resort to memory wipes! If she was anyone else they would declare someone as difficult as her just not worth it- but Akari is powerful. Her illusions are much too useful to just toss aside- so they keep going at her, locking her up under tighter and tighter security every time she escapes, becoming increasingly frustrated that despite the fact she has literally no memories that they cannot erase her subconscious feelings about the commission… which is that she very much does not like or trust them. They just need to find a way to break her, and then they will have all of this power at their disposal. It might take a while but they can do it. They’re quite patient after all.

Pen: Question: does Akari meet Ingo or smokestack first?

Not sure! Since this is from Emmet’s POV that stuff isn’t really important? He just finds his amnesiac brother and the next day sees a teenager crawling through the window via fire escape

I think she just showed up one day, amnesiac teenager on the run who got taken in- and then immediately imprinted on Ingo

Like, Calaba or something was supposed to take care of her but she declared Ingo is her dad now actually and they all have to just. Roll with that.

Other fun things to consider:

Emmet having no idea how to tell his brother that he found Akari in the hero commission

Emmet breaking Akari out and then having Akari just casually let slip to her dad that she’s so glad her uncle is a spy that could break her out

they actually break Akari

Vision is just our eyes taking in light bouncing off of stuff, so if you could bend that to your will….

This isn’t just a hyper realistic illusion that can affect one person- she can make illusions that everyone sees and no one can tell the difference

Her power is terrifying and the commission needs it

unlike most of my AU’s she’s a legit teenager here Complete with the teenage invincibility concept backed up by the fact that she’s super powerful, has amnesia, and is living the yolo life because she thinks she could be spirited away any minute

No one lets her be a super villain so she does that on her own. She was climbing in through the window because that’s just ‘how she is’. When she’s comfortable she has zero filter, self preservation instincts, or craps to give. (This terrifies Ingo)

It’s not like she goes to public school either- she can’t. She’s completely homeschooled and while she does well at that…. gestures she has free time

Everything she does is underlined with the knowledge that she is constantly minutes away from “death” (an erasure of personality and memories) so it’s not worth wasting time

She grows attached quickly but is extremely flighty, constantly putting on a don’t care attitude. she’s terrified, but what else is she supposed to do? Nothing she does really matters in the long run- the conclusion is still the same

I like the thought that she was an orphan kid. Ran away from every orphan program she was ever in and lived on the streets. Tuning her powers on her own. It’s why she’s got wandering feet even when she has a home (plus, being as hardened to societal programs makes her horrid at listening to orders)

Akari initially suggested that Ingo was her dad as a joke basically. She wanted to hang out with him more and that was the excuse she gave. She didn’t expect him to actually start acting like her dad and is high key terrified about how attached to him she is at this point

And, as promised, the small scene:

(Set after Ingo has met up with Eelektross and Akari several times in secret during Akari's on the field commission training)

The apartment is as silent as it gets when Ingo sits at the kitchen table, head in his hands and sigh on his lips. Melli had gone over to a friends place for the evening and Ingo didn’t have any plans that could delay this… conversation any further.

A conversation with himself. One that he has been putting of for quite a while.

Letting out a groan, Ingo slumps so his head is resting in his arms, the darkness helping him confront the mental beast head on.

No use putting it off any longer.

He starts with the facts, lining them up mentally like a legion of toy soldiers. Heroes are bad. Akari is a hero. Akari isn’t made bad by the fact the commission took her in- she’s still Akari and he still loves her.

Which means…. Some heroes can technically be good.

Ingo groans again as he lets his head drop all the way to the wooden table. He’s barely four facts in and he’s already completely over this “conversation” ….but it needs to be done, and Ingo doesn’t trust himself to try again if he aborts now.

Where was he? Oh right.

Some heroes can technically be good.

Right that…. He shifts tracks.

Eelektross hates him for killing his brother.

Honestly, Ingo can’t even blame him for his anger. If some hero came along and murdered Emmet, Ingo is fairly certain he would react the same way.

Elektross no longer thinks he killed his brother.

Which is because- No, not yet. Ingo doesn’t want to touch that one yet.

Elektross no longer hates him, and apologized for accusing him of murder.

Which is… much more then Ingo was ever expecting really. But more baffling-

Elektross has been taking care of Akari and taking her to see him.

Why?? How did he even know Akari was his child in the first place?? According to Akari that was the first thing he said to her- asking her what was she doing there and that telling her that her dad was worried. But not many people knew about Akari in the first place- or at least not in relation to him. The only real people who would know Akari would be the other Hisui residents and-

Nope. Backtrack.

Electross had been taking care of Akari and had been going behind the commissions back in order to let Ingo see her. Some heroes can technically be good. Elektross is technically a good guy.

Oh great, now Ingo feels nauseous. Squeezing his eyes shut eyes even harder, he try’s to get his roiling gut to accept the conclusion he’s come to.

But it’s true! Elektross has proven himself trustworthy time and time again- from the aforementioned Akari watching to just the fact that he HAS to know Ingo’s secret identity in order to know that he’s Akari’s father…… and Ingo hasn’t had the commission knocking on his doors. Yet another part of his mind whispers- but he has no idea what eelektross would gain by waiting, so he puts that thought to the side as well.

Which leads him back to…. Elektross knows chandelure is alive. Elektross knows Ingo couldn’t have killed chandelure because he saw his face. Elektross recognized Ingo. Elektross must have known Ingo before his memory loss.

Oh he hates where this is going. Full of nervous energy, Ingo begins to pace around the kitchen, anxiously biting at the skin around his fingernails.

Elektross- No. Reroute.

Ingo did not steal chandelure’s powers- Emmet says he has always had them. Chandelure’s powers are extremely similar to Ingo’s. Ingo appeared shortly after-

Nope nope nope nope. Ingo falls into a crouch as he begins to clutch his forearms, desperately holding back his frantic breathing. He needs to- He needs-

There’s Lichtenberg scars on his arms. Emmet hadn’t wanted to talk about those.

Ingo finds this route a bit easier to take, his breathing evening out as he releases his death grip on his arms.

Emmet found him shortly after elektross saw his face. Emmet wasn’t surprised by the burn scar.

…Emmet knew Akari was his daughter.

Aaaaaand he was back to pacing, hands flapping in an attempt to rid himself of anxious energy. It wasn’t working.

Emmet was- Ingo was-

Emmet was a good person, which is why he couldn’t be a hero. ….but heroes can technically be good. Technically. Especially if- their parents died when they were pretty young right? So hypothetically…

Ugh no this wasn’t working either. How was he supposed to….

Gray zones. Right. Some half remembered psychological thing that Ingo had no idea where he learned- maybe before the amnesia? Yes so, gray zones. Not everything is black and white. People can change. People can be good people but make bad mistakes. People can be-

Ingo is chandelure. Heroes are bad and if Ingo was a hero then that means Ingo is bad and-

He rushes to the bathroom to throw up, barely having enough time to pull up the toilet lid before puking his guts out. He’s pretty sure he’s crying.

But if Ingo is chandelure that means that-

Emmet is Elektross.

Emmet’s been taking care of his daughter for him.

Something in Ingo gives as he slumps in place, the agony of the previous reveal buried in the wake of the sheer relief he feels at the moment. Because Emmet is a good person who loves Ingo and Akari- and he will take care of her and help get her home.

And that’s more important then anything else isn’t it?

The rest of the night was spent in and out of a long running panic attack over the chandelure thing- but by the time the sun had risen Ingo had mostly made peace with himself. Mostly.

THIS IS THE TIME POLICE!

Summary: Do you have a permit for that time machine?

(A crack Scarlet and Violet submas reunion)

if emmet in faeU could turn into goop like ingo, what color would he be? (Also- if changlings could be made with shadow, I can’t help but wonder if they could be made of light too?)

Emmet would be a very light silvery! Aaaaaaalmost white but not quite.

You’re on the right track too! Emmet would be made of moonlight- a much softer sort of light then Akari’s holy light!

I’ve actually played around with the idea of a reverse AU quite a bit and might write a fic about it after everything is said and done lol. Lemmie dig out my notes….

Key differences between changeling!Emmet and changeling!Ingo:

-Emmet carries around a lot less inherent angst. He doesn’t think he’s a good person- but he doesn’t really dwell on it. It’s just a fact of life in his eyes

- Emmet takes matching his brother verrrrrry seriously. He spent a good chunk of their early life bemoaning that he couldn’t be exactly like Ingo. Ingo eventually offered the mirroring thing as a compromise that Emmet accepted.

- Emmet swings wildly between- keeping human form up as long as humanly possible and refusing to switch back even if he’s long over extended himself (he wants to match Ingo, it’s unfair he can’t match Ingo all the time), to being in changeling form as much as he possibly can. (So he can be picked up and carried around. When he’s in moods like these Ingo will have to carry him home because he refuses to be human for longer then necessary)

- He likes being carried a lot a lot. Like, changeling!Ingo enjoys it immensely but changeling!Emmet will be a little brat about it and DEMAND to be carried around. Elesa jokes about him being lazy but it’s more about the extended contact

- Another difference is that he likes that he’s changing Ingo…. While also feeling pretty guilty for feeling that way. Ingo assures him that he is in no pain…. but sometimes Emmet worries. He’s not sure what he would do if he actually hurt Ingo.

probably hide under the bed and refuse to come out.

- Probably is a lot stronger at night and weaker during the day- but the darkness of the subway tunnels help shield him from the sun

- how him and Ingo met is also completely different but I’ll save the exact specifics for later. Just know that they get adopted much younger in this AU ;)

Oh did I promise a new AU today?

SURPRISE FRICKER!! NEW CHAPTER INSTEAD!!!

Silver Bloodstains chapter 19: Cinderella

Summary: Emmet meets with Mistress Cogita.

Silver Bloodstains FINAL CHAPTER: Sleeping Beauty

Summary: Emmet fixes things

Astral Shards AU

TLDR: The Boys are in space and they have a Bad Time. (Lady Sneasler is there too)

(This is technically a No Man's Sky AU, but you don't need to know anything about the game to follow along just fine)

Welcome to the pitch! All art for this AU will get their own posts, so everything here will be in game screenshots. There's also a lot more to this story then just what's written here (As this is, you know, the pitch) so please leave any questions, thoughts, or ideas in my inbox. This bad boy isn't getting a fic anytime soon, so it's tumblr only for now!

(In game models of the boys. I'll post a drawing of their actual designs sometime in the future)

Post proper under ReadMore!

This is honestly half fic if I'm being honest.

Length: ~3,000 words or so. Sorry not sorry.

Disclaimer: I don’t know every single No Man’s Sky lore detail, and I’m not going to scour the wiki for every piece of information and spoil the whole game for myself, so not everything will be 100% lore accurate. And I’ll be ignoring the giant late game twist (if you know you know) because, as cool as it is, it’s very much a twist that consumes all narratives set in this universe, and I’d rather not make my story *also* about that. (Also, as with all AUs not currently written down in fic form, details are subject to change)

Anyway did you know the No Man’s Sky protagonist suffers from amnesia?

Picture this- Ingo wakes up on a frozen planet next to a crashed starship. He's a bit confused and lost- but his space suit is damaged and that kinda takes priority. Because of that, it takes him a hot minute to figure out he has no memories- but as he’s gathering the materials needed to not die he figures it out

The starship recognizes him as its owner and he feels relatively confident in his ability to fix all of this jazz, so he did exist before... but besides that he’s kinda stumped

But this place sucks- he’s constantly freezing to death, stuck either recharging his hazard protection with sodium or siting in his (still wrecked) starship until he warms up enough to go mine stuff with his handy dandy laser again.

And he’s alone

It’s very lonely

(He’s not supposed to be alone)

So the tentative plan is this: fix the starship enough for space flight, launch into space, and then fly to this solar system's space station. (which he has a gut feeling exists. “Every solar system has one” he mutters to himself. He’s not sure how he knows that)

It’s….. slow going. But it’s going

There’s a lot of mining involved, a lot of looting crashed space junk, a lot of mind numbing boredom as he goes to the same spaces over and over and-

And then he sees something weird in the distance.

(This is a monolith. In game it’s used to learn space language words and history and to get  l o r e. I’m taking advantage of it)

It’s kinda a hike over there, and it uses up a lot of his sodium reserves, but eventually he comes face to face with….. whatever this is

So he walks around it, trying to figure out what it is, before eventually finding a platform he can interact with.

Stepping up to it, he’s filled with strange sensations and knowledge, a story of an alien race that is familiar yet he hasn’t actually seen yet-

And then the world shatters in front of him

He steps back in shock as a tear in reality forms, a crack in the cosmos widening and fracturing, the sound of breaking glass as everything s h a t t e r s-

And then everything is fine

He stands there, dumbly for a moment, mind reeling….

Until he notices something that wasn’t there before

A shard of purple glass

Carefully, he picks it up, holding it up to his visor-

It whispers

It’s faint, too faint. He can’t hear it well- but it’s important. The whispers are familiar and he needs to know what they’re saying.

So he treks back to his ship, filled with a purpose he hasn’t had in his entire remembered life.

It takes a bit to wire his radio receiver to accept strange reality shards as a valid form of input, but eventually he figures it out. Connecting the last few wires and attaching the shard to it-

“Ingo, where are you? Please respond.”

That’s- that’s- that’s his brother!!!! His TWIN!!! Ingo doesn’t know much but he knows that’s his brother and he’s not supposed to be alone and what happened, why did he crash and why is his twin not here, where did he go? What happened?? He needs to find him!! He needs to find him NOW!

This lights a fire under him

Suddenly it isn’t “hey let’s fix my ship because I have nothing better to do” it’s “I have to fix my ship so I can find my brother” he’s working in overtime

He visits the monolith once or twice too, hoping to get another hint, another clue, maybe even respond- but it has no more answers. Reality is stable, and there are no more shards of glass

It takes forever and the fixed spaceship is…… not great- but at least it flies.

It works well enough, and Ingo has enough oxygen for his life support and enough fuel for his ship to get to the space station- even if it’s on the other end of the solar system.

Ingo…. reeeeaally wishes it was better put together, but this is the best he can do for a previously totaled starship.

So, he lifts off.

And things go great at first!

His radar manages to locate the space station without much trouble, and his pulse engine should get him there fairly quickly.

He charts a course and gets going, little purple shard tucked into his suit. (He’d listened to the message on repeat hundreds of times. Over and over “Ingo, where are you? Please respond.” He’d combed through his ships logs as well, but they were almost all corrupted, left with nothing but fragments of his brother’s voice. This was his only true connection)

And then the engine dies

The engine dies and Ingo is in the middle of nowhere, ages away from any planet, stuck in the middle of empty space with no hope of getting anywhere.

No debris, no friendly ships, no nothing.

He’s going to die out here.

He's going to die out here and his brother will never know, will never see him again, will think he just forgot him-

He has a nice panic, looking at his limited supply of oxygen and mildly freaking out

(Majorly freaking out)

But at least he has his radio.

He doesn’t…. know any frequencies or anything, doesn’t know what to tune it too, but he has to try something.

So he just, turns it on and hopes for the best.

“Hello this is Ingo. I am stranded in deep space and require assistance.” No response. Tune the frequency one more decimal point “Hello this is Ingo. I am stranded in deep space and require assistance.” No response. Turn the dial-

And so on and so forth.

Eventually, his wordy message turns to just a hoarse plea of “help”, and he’s started switching the stations willy nilly, no longer one decimal at a time.

He’s going to die out here.

Hours of this, hours of desperately pleading into the vast depths of space-

The frequency changes without his input.

“….help?” He asks hesitantly, staring blankly at the radio transceiver. How did it do that? Why did it do that? Why was the display filled with random symbols instead of numbers-

“With what?”

Ingo jolts upright in his seat, adrenaline rushing through his veins and his heartbeat in his throat “I am stranded in deep space and require rescue.” He wheezes out, his throat sore and dry

“Oh yeah that’s no good. You sound awful- you must have been stuck there a while.” There’s the sounds of buttons beeping and fingers tapping before- “Ah found you. We’ll open a pocket near your location. Sit tight.”

And then reality warps and-

That’s new

It’s uh…. A bit too far from his ship though. It’s a nice, rational distance away, but his ship can’t move.

But it’s close enough he could probably jet pack over there.

Making sure his shard is close to his chest and firmly secured, he opens up his cockpit and leaps, propelling himself into the docking bay-

And oh

Artificial gravity kicks in, and he falls to the floor in a crumpled heap right by the entrance.

Impossibly, a ship flies in a mere moment later, even though there had been no ships anywhere nearby Ingo before. Several more soar in and out as he ungracefully shuffles to the station proper. Somehow.

And by the stars, is it loud.

(Please imagine this area being far more busy than it is. I took this photo on a weekday, but even on its busiest days it’s still a game that probably maxes out at lobbies of thirty or something. Since, you know, it’s an indie game)

After weeks of total isolation, the sheer hustle and bustle of hundreds of people is far too much to handle, the echoing reverb of ships landing and taking off sending spikes through his skull.

But, as uncomfortable as it is, it’s still people- and Ingo is so so glad to have company

“You okay?” A young voice asks as he clambers up to the parking space nearest to the entrance. “You took quite a tumble there.”

There's a short being on the platform, one that helps Ingo up. It's a youth, maybe female- and she almost seems to be the same species as Ingo. (Ingo has the feeling that he doesn't meet members of his own species much... or ever)

“Everything is operational.” he reassures, standing at full height and towering over the girl. He hunches down slightly, as to not seem intimidating. “I am just relieved that I am no longer trapped out there.”

The girl nods and gestures him forward, walking towards the station proper and expecting him to follow. He does

“Yeah I bet! If your ship wasn’t even working well enough to fly in….” She shakes her head. “Well enough of that. I’m iteration Akari! What’s your name?”

“Ingo.” He replies, a little more directly then he prefers. His voice is still hoarse. “What is this place?”

“The anomaly!” Akari replies, as they get closer to the crowd proper. “I guess this is your first time then?”

“Yes it is.” What in the world is this place? And where are all these people coming from??

“Then you should meet with iteration Adaman and Irida!”

Akari begins leading him past the crowds and towards a curving ramp.

“Iteration?” He asks, noticing the pattern in their titles.

“Oh yeah uhhhh… I’ll let one of them explain that.”

Akari chatters to him as they walk along, pointing out different landmarks and explaining their purpose

Eventually they reach a wide room that seems to overlook the entire station, just as bright and colorful as everything else.

“Hello!” A voice calls, and an alien decked in dark blue greets him. “You took quite the fall there! Are you alright?”

He is iteration Adaman apparently, and iteration Irida stands nearby. She waves when Ingo and Akari approach.

They are the leaders of this place- the founders of the anomaly. A place between dimensions, a safe haven for people like them- one's who are alone in the worlds they inhabit.

They ask about his lack of spaceship and Ingo tells them of his plight, eventually explaining his goal.

“I need to find my twin.” He explains, pulling out his shard of glass. “I remember little, but I know we are not meant to be separated. I fear for his safety.”

“A twin???” Irida sounds completely shocked, the plants she was monitoring forgotten as she turns to the group. “That’s not possible.”

“It could be.” Adaman counters. “In the infinite reaches of spacetime anything is possible.”

“The odds of such a thing are so astronomically low. Do you mean a brother in arms? A family chosen by bond alone?”

“No?” Ingo responds. “He looks like me.” He saw his reflection in the ice, his brother whispering in his ears. They shared a face.

“Impossible. Mathematically impossible”

“Improbable Irida. Not impossible.”

“The odds are far too low-"

“Plenty of people have siblings. And plenty of twins exist.” Ingo interrupts, irritation coloring his voice. “It is not that rare.”

“But not travelers.” Akari pipes up, finally joining the conversation. “Travelers are always alone.”

“Traveler?”

“That’s what you are.” Irida explains. “A traveler. We all are actually- everyone here. A being cursed to wander the stars, one with no home of their own. They may stop and rest, may find a place to settle down- but there is no place that is theirs, no community for them. No sky they rest under calls them its own.”

“Only one can exist at once.” Adaman adds. “Every dimension can only host a single one.”

“Hang on.” Ingo shakes his head. “That does not track. You just said that everyone here is a traveler. Which contradicts your earlier statement.”

“We are in an in-between space.” Irida explains, her tone pitying. “We founded the anomaly so travelers could find each other. So that the iterations could finally interact.”

“So we wouldn’t always be alone.”

“I…. I need to sit down.”

Adaman pulls up a chair and Ingo slumps into it, his head and helmet falling into his hands

“You can stay as long as you need.” Adaman reassures, his tone soft. “Our home is open to all, a bastion of safety.”

“I cannot.” Ingo sighs, before straightening back up. “I must find my brother.”

He holds out his shard of glass, reflections of multicolored light gleaming off it.

“This is the only clue I have”

“May I?” Adaman holds out his hand and Ingo hands it over reluctantly, watching as he holds it up to the light. His face falls as he examines it.

“Oh dear. Irida is this….?”

“Yes.” Irida's tone is grave, somber and mourning. “A shard of the glass world.”

“Your brother is almost certainly gone.”

“No!” Ingo leaps to his feet, his hands clenched in fists. “He is not! He sent me that message-“

“There are many in between spaces.” Irida interrupts. “We are in one, a stable pocket that hides us from the world, from the gaze of the Atlas.”

She frowns.

“Larger ones are far less stable. Refractions, cracks. The-"

“-world of glass.” Adaman finishes for her. “Any living being unlucky enough to fall in there will cut themselves on its fragments, their very being torn to shreds. Your brother would not survive."

“Not necessarily.” Ingo counters, his voice tight. “If I could get him out-” 

“He would be nothing like he was before, shattered beyond compare.”

“But he would be THERE!” His voice is loud and booming, his throat stinging in pain. “I refuse to let him suffer and die in there. I refuse to just…. give up on him! I will get him out!”

“It will be difficult.” Adaman hands him his glass back. “To find a way in will be tricky enough, but to find a way out….”

“How do I get in.” Ingo holds the shard to his chest. “How do I find him.”

“Well…."

Adaman frowns, drumming his fingers on his arm.

"Entering the world of glass shouldn't be much trouble. It's a vast space, and opening pockets in spacetime is our specialty."

"But finding him is the actual problem." Irida adds, her face grim.

"Yup. Which makes your encounter at the monolith even more strange." Expression contemplative, Adaman once again holds out his hand. "May I see your message again?"

Tentatively, Ingo places it back in his palm, still reluctant to part with something so precious. Adaman hardly seems to notice, casually turning it back and forth in his hands as he re-examines it- before eventually scanning it with a tool on his table. Data streams onto his screen, and he hands the shard back to Ingo before examining what he received.

The group is silent as he scrolls through the data, a tension in the air.

".... I think you could probably find more of these shards. Going off of your account of the event and the frequency of the shard itself..." He trails off, expression contemplative. "They seem to be... tuned to you somehow. Connected somehow. Maybe it's related to you two being 'twins'."

He hums.

"Maybe your predecessor was split into two. Maybe you are connected more than you know."

Ingo has... questions about that, but he keeps silent for now. Better not to interrupt him and break his train of thought.

"If you can find weak spots in your universe, places where the boundary between the world of the living and the world of glass is thin... Maybe you can find more of these."

"And then what?" Irida asks, her tone annoyed. "What good would more of those do?"

"Why, that's where you come in my dear friend!" Voice light and face playful, Adaman turns to his partner and grins. "With enough data points, I'm sure you can triangulate his location!"

"And send this man on a suicide mission?"

"I will find a way." Ingo interrupts the two before their argument to escalate, his determination swelling. "A way to travel there without losing myself. I will not go in unprepared."

"You heard the man!" Adaman claps his hands merrily and Irida groans. "He's already made up his mind! Better to help him where we can, hmm?"

Irida shakes her head.

“Fine. I’ll rig you up a scanner. A way to find unstable areas.”

"And then you can gather more of those shards!"

“But you’ll need to go all over.” Irida huffes.

“Not just yellow stars. Red, green, blue. You’d need to build an intensive warp drive, which is expensive and requires so much materials and nanites and you don’t even have a ship-”

“We surely have an extra we can spare.” Adaman interruptes, flashing Ingo an apologetic look. “And while the trials will be difficult, I’m sure your determination will see you through. Akari?”

“Yes?” Ingo startles as the girl speaks. He had forgotten she was there.

“Can you check the hangers for a ship we could gift our friend? I’m positive we have a few that have been abandoned.”

“Of course!” Grabbing Ingo’s hand, the girl leads him onward. “Let’s find you something good!”

Unfortunately, ‘something good’ was a tall ask when looking through old abandoned spaceships. Most had been left behind for good reason, old piles of junk that barely flew and would require extensive repairs. Certainly not anything close to the state of the art traveling ship Ingo would require.

“Okay this isn’t looking great,” Akari started, no doubt noticing Ingo’s discouragement. “But you could probably break one of these bad boys down for parts and then buy a better ship? Work your way up?”

“I suppose.” Ingo frowned as he brushed his hand over one of the ships, a part coming off under his hand.

“Or maybe….” The girl trailed off, and Ingo gave her an inquisitive look. “I mean it’s kind of a long shot- but I do know a ship that has all the required technology you’re looking for already.”

“Really?!” Hope bloomed in Ingo’s chest, his hands shaking in excitement.

“Yeah. But uh, don’t get your hopes up too high. She’s really picky.”

“…..she?”

‘She’ was a ship by the name of ‘Lady Sneasler’, a living breathing organism that happened to also be a spaceship. A marvel of biology that was like nothing Ingo had ever seen before, a pure wonder and the most beautiful thing Ingo had ever laid eyes on. And he told her as much.

(Living ships are a very canon thing in game and they are so cool! I'll post some art of Lady Sneasler later, but for right now, here's my personal in game living ship, Darling)

She was flattered, and was even more flattered when Ingo broke into an excited ramble as he examined her thoroughly, reverently running his hands up her flank when she gave him permission. She was a prideful one apparently, and had refused a pilot for centuries- but Ingo’s genuine wonder managed to easily win her over.

And so Ingo got himself a ship.

Thus, the two begin their cosmic journey together, traveling through the galaxy to gather all of Emmet’s messages and eventually save him.

It’s long and arduous, rife with danger and trials... but eventually they manage to force their way into the world of glass, and pull Emmet out.

And boy howdy is he messed up….. but that just means they get a healing arc lol.

But yeah, that’s the basics! Feel free to ask questions if you’re curious, (I have a lot more I haven’t shared yet) and I hope you enjoyed! There’s a very decent chance I might end up writing a fic about this in the future, but that’s so far off that you shouldn’t hold your breath.

Thank you for reading!

Questions from someone who (regrettably) hasn't heard of the No Man's Sky before Astral Shards :P

What is Atlas? Since they hide from it, is it like Giratina in this au? Or Arceus?

The Atlas is many things.

The Korvax call it a god. An intelligence beyond comprehension and judgment. It created the world and all that reside in it, and the Korvax hope that by worshiping it, they too can obtain similar greatness.

The Vy'keen feel differently. The Atlas controls the sentinels, and the Vy'keen have been at war with them for generations. They do not trust something with that much power, and insist that if the Atlas is a god, then it must be insane.

The Gek are more neutral. They care little for things like higher powers and gods, and are much more concerned with their trades and profits. Still, even they acknowledge the power of the Atlas, of its ever present nature.

(The Korvax, Vy'keen, and Gek are the three main races in No Man's Sky, each with their own language and history)

Adaman and Irida think differently. They call it a liar, a hypocrite, a false god. They have spent most of their lives avoiding its crimson gaze, slipping into the cracks between worlds and leaving its jurisdiction.

The Atlas is all of these things and more. It is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything and the keeper of order. It made the galaxy and all its wonders- every galaxy in every universe. The infinite cosmos is it's garden, and the sentinels are it's gardeners, tending to it's creations and making sure everything is in proper order.

Yet what is the point of a garden without someone to visit? What is the purpose of art if there is no one to view it?

And there in lies the hypocrisy. Because the Atlas craves order, demands assimilation- yet it created the travelers, the antitheses to all that it is. The travelers are the outliers, the mistake, the glitch in the code, yet the Atlas adores them more then any of it's other creations.

The traveler is the observer, the aesthete. Their entire purpose is to behold what the Atlas has made, to revel in its glory.

Forever adrift and aimless, doomed to always move and never stay- no home to call their own.

Is it any surprise that some rebel against that fate?

Tags from @reblog-subway-station:

#do they [the sentinels] mess with Ingo's plans? #i imagine they do because. he probably isn't a big fan of the Atlas either

The Sentinels (Ingo)

“Warning. Sentinel detected.”

Ingo flinched at the sudden voice of his exosuit, his hands threatening to drop his multitool in surprise. That wasn’t a message he hadn’t ever gotten before, although the alien dread and irritation suggested that before his memory loss he had. Getting a better grip on his multitool, Ingo turned to where his visor was directing him, coming face to face with-

A little red drone.

He tensed for one anxious wordless moment… before the drone tuned away with a wirr, floating a ways away to scan a nearby tree. That was…. anticlimactic. For all the hubbub involved, Ingo assumed that they would attack him or something. The warning was still ever present on the bottom of his visor screen and it didn’t look like it was going away anytime soon. But why? The drone wasn’t doing anything- just scanning random rocks and trees as it buzzed around.

….well whatever. Ingo shook his head and went back to mining. He had a brother waiting for him, and his ship was almost finished. Just a couple more materials and he-

A metallic shriek was the only warning Ingo got before a sleeve of bullets got fired into his back. He whirled around as his visor lit up with red, his suit’s shields wailing about the damage they had taken. The sentinel- because it had been the sentinel who attacked him- began charging up another volley. “Hey!” Ingo shouted in alarm as his shield took another round of bullets. “Violence is highly unnecessary! Words would suffice!”

Unfortunately, the sentinel didn’t seem interested in (or capable of) starting a conversation, and Ingo had to dodge another round of ammunition. Irritated (and a bit scared for his life) he turned his mining laser on the aggressive little droid- which did little more the singe it. Still, Ingo didn’t have much other options, so he kept at it, slowly racking up damage while doing his best to avoid as much fire as possible.

By the time he finally managed to take the thing down, his shield was critically damaged and flashing at him aggressively. “Serves you right.” He spat at the exploded shrapnel on the floor, its internal parts fractured and and broken, strewn wildly in all directions. The parts were strange though, hardly resembling the internal circuits of his own ship and looking more like jagged purple shards. ….shards that eerily resembled the message from his brother.

“Warning. Sentinel reinforcements approaching” Oh heck no. Investigation abandoned, Ingo hightailed it out of there, running up the nearby hill and praying he could get far enough away in time. In less than thirty seconds the area he had previously been in was swarming with little red drones, the little buggers having blinked into existence between one moment and the next. Ingo had no idea where they could have come from- but he wasn’t sticking around to find out.

And we’re back baby!

Ingo Orders a Pizza (and Ends up Regretting it Immensely)

Summary: After three years in Hisui, Ingo has finally returned to Nimbasa! Unfortunately, he’s a bit lost and maybe a liiiiittle bit hungry. A slice or two of pizza couldn’t hurt… right?

I’m curious now- what were the rest of emmets messages? Was he sending them while being cut apart in the Evil Glass Dimension?

Oh I was sooooo gunna write them all out for you... but that would b a fic's worth of words and I'm doing this format to avoid too much extra writing. Regardless...

As soon as Emmet could get his communicator working he started sending messages to Ingo. It was... discouraging when the first few obviously didn't go through, but he kept at it. Not really because he expected a response, but more because he needed to someone to talk to, even if they couldn't talk back.

Unbeknownst to him, Ingo was getting his messages, just not when he was sending them. Instead, Ingo's grand quest is to travel the far reaches of the galaxy to receive each one- each message its own tiny shard of glass.

Each message is a quest to obtain, and each shard leaves Ingo feeling more and more worried.

Sure, it all starts okay, with Emmet absolutely sure that he can find some locals and borrow a ship out of there...

But slowly things start to become... off.

He's forgetting things- his plan, where he's been, where he's going. It starts small at first, Emmet doesn't even notice, but...

But he does eventually.

Eventually he realizes that he's losing himself, piece by piece, and he's scared. He's scared because he doesn't know what's happening, doesn't know how to stop it, doesn't know what he's losing.

Each message gets more and more disjointed, less coherent.

He forgets his name at one point.

...He forget's Ingo's a while later.

He can't remember who he is or who he's talking to, can't remember where he's going or where he's from.

He knows.. he knows he's talking to someone but-

He knows they must be dead. Whoever it was. That's why he's alone now right? That's why... that's why...

He has to keep sending messages.

It's all he has.

Please.

I miss you

Sorry I didn't write this earlier, but we gotta know what Emmet is going through in the Astral Shards au.. especially after the tags under the sentinels post

Awesome Sneasler ship drawing btw!

Thank you for the ask! This is actually what helped me power through and write the second half to that, so look forward to that.

In reference to the tags-

When Ingo get's Emmet out of the Land of Glass he's not... quite.. natural anymore. He's broken, shattered, literally smashed into tiny pieces that don't properly follow the laws of reality. He physically shouldn't have been able to leave the glass dimension... but Ingo found a way.

The autophage helped with that.

They were familiar with being broken, with being rejected by the Atlas. It was the Void Mother who helped them, who showed them how to use atlantideum to build themselves up from nothing.

But Emmet is a biological being, not mechanical, so they cannot fix him. They can only keep him from falling further apart.

For Ingo to save his brother, he'll need help of an... organic being.

Happy pride month. Have a crack ship.

Mirror Image, chapter ten: INTERMISSION

Summary: Meanwhile…

We’re back baby.

Everyone Goes Feral in Hisui Chapter 24: Travels and Separations

Summary: Elesa quells Lord Avalugg. The gang splits up.

This is part two. Read part one here

The Sentinels (Emmet)

“Warning. Sentinel detected.”

“Liar” Emmet smacked the side of his radar, but the message didn’t disappear. “Warning. Sentinel detected.” “Lie-“ Smack “-er.” Smack “Warning. Sentinel detected.”

Groaning, Emmet admitted defeat, flopping back onto the stupid reflective ground he was sitting on. He’d heard that traveling through black holes damaged equipment, but he hadn’t realized just how much it damaged them. Although, maybe that was just a consequence of being literally ripped out of his ship. Honestly, Emmet was lucky to be alive.

Still, nearly ever single feature of his suit had been non-functional when he came to, and his first few hours awake had been spent frantically fixing all of it. Thankfully, his equipment was all designed to be easy to repair with any natural elements around, but it was still a tense few hours. Especially when his radar warned him of sentinels the moment he got it working.

“Warning. Sentinel detected.” “Yup yup. Sentinels detected. You said that already.”

Of course, there wasn’t any sentinels around, no matter where Emmet looked or what he did. Nothing was there to bully him for mining, nothing was there to shoot him for daring to exist. Yet. Still. His radar insisted.

“Warning. Sentinel detected.”

Emmet had uninstalled and reinstalled the stupid thing four times, had checked every single connection and part- and had even straight up built a new one, and still it insisted there was sentinels nearby. There wasn’t, and Emmet was sick of its whining.

“Warning. Sentinel detected.” “Shut up. Please.”

Was there a way to turn off the voice warnings? Or make it stop searching for sentinels all together? There was obviously something about this planet that made his radar glitch out, and he doubted it would stop detecting the dang things until he was off planet.

Which would be hard to do without a ship.

“Warning. Sentinel detected.”

Man, he wished Ingo was here. Sure, it would be nice to get a second opinion on whatever was going on- but mostly he just missed his brother. He hadn’t responded to any of Emmet’s messages, so he was probably out of range of his local communicator. Honestly, he could be on the other side of the galaxy at this point, flung somewhere else entirely by that stupid black hole.

But hey! That’s why they had an emergency plan for situations like this! Emmet just needed to get to this system’s space station and then everything would be fine.

Which. Also required a ship.

“Warning. Sentinel detected.”

And that brought him right back to his stupid radar. He needed the dang thing in order to locate any nearby settlements, and he needed a settlement of some kind in order to hitch a ride on someone’s ship. Heck, he’d settle even for a wandering pilot at this point- just any kind of sentient life form!

“Warning. Sentinel detected.”

Maybe even a sentinel.

One of them would be better then the endless stretches of glassy hills, pillars of fractured glass and floating shards. Better then these oil slick skies and their sixteen bright stars, blinking down at him judgmentally.

He hoped that wherever Ingo ended up, it was nicer then this.

Everyone goes feral in Hisui 25: Anticipation and Steel

Summary: The rift goes quiet. Melli meets a train

Everyone Goes Feral in Hisui chapter 26: Banishment and Frenzy

Summary: Kamado attempts to banish Elesa from Jubilife.

Everyone Goes Feral in Hisui chapter 27: Breaks and Adaptability

Summary: Ingo heads down to Jubilife. Elesa is there to meet him.

Everyone Goes Feral in Hisui Chapter 28: Masks and Suspicions

Summary: Emmet meets some strange characters on his way back to Jubilife.

Everyone Goes Feral in Hisui chapter 29: Constraints and Children

Summary: Cogita decides to be unhelpful. Akari helps with that.