#akademiya AU

[aeroplaneblues]

Theory Testing😛🍃

Akademiya AU in which Cyno is adopted by Cyrus really early on when he is a child, he ran around the akademiya and met/played with Alhaitham. Instead of leaving to be homeschooled he stayed because Cyno intrigued him, they grow closer and start dating around their teen years. Nari and Kaveh are still their friends and closer to age so they all go to the akademiya together🥰

[cewwart]

wanted to try my hand at akademiya student tighnari!

[cspcrashing]

AU !

meet archivist alhaitham and detective cyno from my supernatural archivist AU (that i'm turning into a visual novel… or something) 👀

[zweetpea]

Wisdom or Spuriousness Part 1 of 2

Warning: Swearing

"This is not how I thought this would be going down. Let's review. Two weeks ago I got shot all the way to Sumeru desert and ended up at the feet of the Eremites. So far they've only kept me around as a servant."

"Get back to work and stop talking to yourself!" The Eremite leader said. He was one of those Stone Enchanters that summoned those geo alligators. You picked up the broom again and kept sweeping.

"Malakai! Give us the money you owe us." A Geochanter called out followed by a Hydrogunner.

"I still have a week you Fatui Bastards!" Malakai shouted at them. 

You held the broom firmly in your grip and charged at them. In the blink of an eye you were behind them, electricity pulsing through you.

"What just happened?" You shook. You held up the broom and blocked a few rocks the Geochanter threw at you. Your delusion glowed bright purple as the world slowed around you. You swung at the Hydrogunner several times, until he fell to the ground. "I don't know what I just did. Did I kill a man?"

"Viktor! Don't you Go dying on me!" The Geochanter cried. 

"Ivan... it's okay." Malakai swung at 'Ivan' and Ivan blocked. He swung his weapon around and Ivan kept backing up. You walked over to the Hydrogunner and looked over him. "You..." He hissed. "Stay away from My Ivan."

"What have I done." You whispered. You looked around and saw his gun. You grabbed it and pointed it at him. "This will heal you right? Right?!"

"With my delusion yes."

"Give it to me then, I'll heal you and then you and Ivan will go. Deal?"

"...Would you do that?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to be a killer, and I see value in people. I want you to pay it forward and forgive the eremites their debt." 

"...Okay." He hands over the delusion and you shot him with the gun. "Thank you." He stood up and threw Ivan over his shoulder. 

"Ivan, catch!" You threw the gun and delusion at him.

"What was that?" Malakai growled at you.

"Malakai! We'll take care of the debt!" Viktor shouted at you two. 

"...Get back to work.

...

Thank you for that." He whispered.

After that The Eremites started to treat you better. They'd give you more rations, start to say please and thank you when they made demands of you, even gave you a few blankets to sleep on. But they still weren't giving you the Debauchery you were promised.

"I hope you guys know that our viewers are going to be very disappointed."

"How many times do we have to tell you?!" A floral ring-dancer picked you up by your collar and held you dangling several inches off the ground. "You are not a protagonist of some erotic romance novel!"

"I have humble beginnings! And of course it's not an Erotic Novel! I've only gotten dicked down by three people and that happens very sparsely!" You're dropped on your ass. "You know sometimes I wish I'd landed myself in a fanfic or an actual Erotic Romance Novel. I wish my life was more like the 50 shades series or the 365 days series." 

"Like Anyone would ever actually want to sleep with you."

Now your butt and your pride were bruised. "Fine! Don't believe me! ...I miss Dvalin."

After a few more weeks of this Hell on earth a girl with hair resembling cat ears strolled up to the Eremites, along with a girl with dark purplish-blue hair. "Malakai! How are you?"

"Dehya! Coming home for the weekend huh?"

"Yeah. You aren't getting up to any trouble are you dumbass?"

"No! Of course not."

"Who is this?" Candace asked looking over at you.

"Hello. Um the Eremites kinda kidnapped me. But it's okay I get kidnapped like every nation I go to."

"That's... not good."

"Do you guys want them? They keep trying to flirt with everyone." Malakai asked.

"No-" "Sure." Candace cuts off Dehya. 

"What?!" Dehya exclaims.

"Come on Dehya. If they need help then I'm obligated to help them as long as they're in the Sumeru Desert. And If we don't take them with us then Cyno will definitely arrest them all."

"Yeah! I don't want that to happen."

"Are you really kidnapped?"

"Well I didn't really get a say but I don't want them to get in trouble. I was promised Debauchery though so I think the best way for me to get that would be going with you guys.

"Fine, whatever." Dehya grumbled. "But you better not try to get freaky with us okay?"

"Yes ma'am." You smiled and the women took you away.

Upon your insistence the girls brought you back to Sumeru city instead of Aaru Village. 

"Thank you ladies." You bowed like a magician doing a trick would. "Until we meet again." You used your Electro powers to race up to the Akademiya and rush into the Grandsage's office.

"Who on earth are you?"

"THE GRIM REAPER, BITCH!!"

[hanamakotoba]

i have been haunted by hsr-genshin au so naturally instead of finishing work i made these instead!! it took way too long to edit and i could've edited those two videos instead but anyway

hsr-genshin au

teyvat was discovered sometimes ago when the traveler finished their sibling quest

ratio was adopted by haikaveh when he was 11, he's not from teyvat

set after penacony, established ratiorine

ratio, aven, topaz and robin are doing undercover investigation in sumeru bc of something related to the ipc and penacony. ratio is there as a guide

only nahida, hat guy, and the current grand sage knows about them. cyno knows there's an investigation but not the identity of the people doing it

they are besties!!! and actually having fun being a 'normal' group of friends in school (none of them have normal childhood)

oh yeah teyvat people ages around 3 times slower than most of the universe. yes this means ratio will most likely die before his parents :)

maybe i will add to this again later

[kaeyachi]

Had this thought a long time ago and discussed it with several friends but seeing Alhaitham and the Kaeya skin side by side honestly made me think of an AU where Kaeya and his father didn't get far and he had to be left in Sumeru. He gets found by Alhaitham's family, and now he's Alhaitham's baby brother instead.

He ends up following his older brother's footsteps and enters Haravatat. Tells his older brother about his origins when their grandma dies (but Alhaitham already knew because he researched). Double the IQ battle, double the sarcasm, double the headache for Kaveh.

[thormanick]

All the Kavetham/Haikaveh ideas I don't have capacity to currently write, a very detailed list:

(Which I am humbly placing here before you. Be warned: this post is an incredibly long one!)

1. Fatui!Kaveh AU, where the night before the meeting happens between Kaveh and Alhaitham at the tavern, Kaveh gets a deal from Fatui representatives to work on a huge project in Snezhnaya. Kaveh is sceptical about it, but decides to accept the offer during the dialogue with Alhaitham (seeing himself as a burden, Kaveh decides that he will cause more trouble to Alhaitham than the Fatui, thus he decides to accept their offer even if it seems too good to be true). He tells Alhaitham about his decision to leave for Snezhnaya, and so the two relatively amicably/peacefully part their ways (not without Alhaitham testing Kaveh's reasoning a bit, but Kaveh's resolve remains strong).

And so, Kaveh leaves for Snezhnaya, where he gets to work on several huge projects for the next several years under Sandrone. Most of them are related to construction, engineering and reverse-engineering of Khaenri'ahn and Khaenri'ah-inspired technology, and he gets barely any time to work on his personal projects (he's overworked and exhausted and doesn't get much time and opportunity to be creative; however, the payments are good and he's on his way to getting out of debt, which is practically the sole reason driving him forward. The projects get progressively more complicated and, in a way, unhinged - engineering military equipment is alright, but working with the remains of Khaenri'ahn technology, dead gods and such proves to be... mentally taxing. Everything happens very gradually though, so Kaveh does not immediately notice the true scale of where the Fatui are ready to go to achieve certain goals). Kaveh doesn't really like the work environment of the Fatui, but he does his best (the Harbingers creep him out whenever he gets to see them on a rare official occasion (he might specifically dislike Pantalone because the Harbinger keeps picking at him for his debt, given a chance), but Sandrone's a decent boss who is somewhat encouraging and invested in his work and personal projects. She might be especially interested in Mehrak's existence and operation). Overall, everything goes quite smoothly for Kaveh, even if he doesn't feel quite at home in Snezhnaya and is aware of how dangerous the Fatui can be. He does not consider himself to be paranoid, but the other shoe has to drop at some point - and that happens when the new Acting Grand Sage of Sumeru gets to visit Snezhnaya on a diplomatic mission (aka: Kaveh reconnects with Alhaitham & Co for the first time in what feels like forever). The situation gets complicated when Kaveh realizes that Sandrone encourages the reestablishment of his connection with Alhaitham specifically - and she never encourages an action if she doesn't directly contribute from it.

Feelings, emotions and shenanigans ensue.

TLDR: Kaveh's doing his best despite being restricted in his ways of work, prevented from realizing most of his creative projects and slowly but surely building emotional walls around himself because Fatui and Snezhnaya; Sandrone being a kind of decent boss with sorta good work ethic but horrendous morals who is not exactly a good influence on Kaveh's idealistic tendencies and guilt complex; Fatui being contextually horrifying but kinda normal coworkers if you don't look at them too close; Alhaitham trying his best as a political figure (Nahida help him) while also trying to get Kaveh to return home with him (because he misses him); the main conflict revolving around Kaveh and his life choices with Sandrone and Alhaitham being kind of foils to each other (with Sandrone gradually destroying Kaveh's idealistic morals and playing on his guilt to get the most out of his potential as an innovator, and with Alhaitham actively trying to resolve Kaveh's guilt and show him that, despite their arguments, Kaveh's idealism still has place in the world and can co-exist with other philosophies). There might or might not be some macguffin-esque Deshret relic that both Akademia and Fatui hunt for that eventually brings the whole crew back to Sumeru. Kaveh might or might not get a chance to meet a fragment of Deshret's spirit within the mentioned relic. But there definitely will be a happy end for everyone here (Deshret will make sure of it).

2. Calamity!AU. The new Cataclysm comes, enveloping all Seven Nations, and so Sumeru does its best to survive. The cities are ruined, and the people gather together in random places to survive. Alhaitham gets to live within one of the settlements, established by the Akademiya. While trying to survive the first wave of the new Calamity, he is also looking for Kaveh; after an argument between the two the architect left for an expedition to the Desert, right before the new Calamity began. Unfortunately, the news comes that his group should have been around Tunigi Hollow - one of the spots in Sumeru where the first wave of the new Calamity hit the hardest. There is no concrete information on whether Kaveh's group survived or not. Alhaitham, not loosing hope, does his best to find any information on Kaveh's whereabouts, but due to Sumeru becoming extremely dangerous to traverse and disjointed as a result of the new Calamity, the search stretches out for almost a decade.

One day Alhaitham helps a caravan, traversing the forests to get to one of the settlements, to fight off the monsters. Unexpectedly, Kaveh turns out to be one of the members of the caravan. Their reunion is almost cut short by the caravan's need to keep going, but Alhaitham convinces Kaveh to join him instead. The two return to the new Sumeru city settlement, where Alhaitham lives and works under the watch of Akademiya and Lord Kusanali. It appears that during his years of travels around the destroyed Sumeru Kaveh learned new ways of architectural construction that would be more efficient against the monsters, born by the Calamity. He also seems to behave quite differently, hardened by the experiences of the past years. Alhaitham proposes for Kaveh to stay with him in the city, and Kaveh accepts. The feelings, new routines, dealings with the changed versions of each other and attempts to find new pace of life in the new world ensue.

TLDR: The world might be ending and impossible to live in, but even so each new day is brighter when the person one loves is by their side.

3. Another Cataclysm!AU, where Kaveh and Alhaitham get assigned separate missions in the grander scheme of things created to prevent the coming of a new Calamity. The plan succeeds and the world remains safe, but not without heavy losses: amongst many others, Kaveh does not survive while carrying out his mission.

Decades pass as Alhaitham goes through his grieving process. Eventually, one evening on the anniversary of the Calamity's prevention, Alhaitham wanders to a place he and Kaveh used to visit together. A Ley Line disruption occurs, and he gets to see a glimpse of Kaveh through it. They have a conversation; the Ley Line apparition (a memory of Kaveh) is convinced that Alhaitham is from the future, and so they talk a lot about the Calamity, whether it was prevented, and about each other's futures. Alhaitham can't bring himself to tell Kaveh that he does not survive the Calamity, but he does tell Kaveh that his architectural legacy lives on. Kaveh commends Alhaitham on his achievements (though not an acting grand sage for a very long time, Alhaitham kept playing an important role throughout Sumeru's history, helping to keep it safe).

Eventually, their time runs out. Ley Line disorder starts gradually disappearing. Alhaitham urges Kaveh to be careful and stay safe, knowing that the Calamity (on Kaveh's side) is yet to come. Kaveh laughs and tells him that on his side, Alhaitham just told him the same words after they finished the debriefing session, related to the Calamity. He says that he was feeling very nervous, but that seeing future-Alhaitham made him convinced that they are on the right path.

And so, the Ley Line disorder disappears. Alhaitham spends some more time at the spot before returning home. Despite painful memories having been brought up, his heart feels a bit lighter.

TLDR: closure comes unexpectedly, takes many forms and does not erase the pain in an instant, but, nevertheless, it heals.

4. AU! where Kaveh and Alhaitham are both magical birds that can transform into humans (and half-humans).

They live together in the depths of Sumeru forest - a domain of a long lost God of Wisdom. Kaveh's feathers are rumoured to bring blessings, while Alhaitham's feathers, on the contrary, are said to bring bad luck or even curses. Humans, living at the edge of magical forest, kinda worship them, but also prefer not to interact with them, primarily because Alhaitham is not happy when others trespass on his lands, and because searching for Kaveh is extremely hard (he's often off working on his projects deep within the forest), and the magical forest is very dangerous on its own. So, the humans build their cities outside of the Sumeru forest, and Alhaitham and Kaveh peacefully live together in the depths of it.

Despite Kaveh and Alhaitham living together for a long time, their opinions on humanity are diametrically opposed: Alhaitham barely tolerates humans, finding them to be reckless, meddling, cowardly and deceitful; Kaveh, on the contrary, finds humans to be creative, inspiring, free and beautiful in their own way. Throughout the years, Kaveh manages to build somewhat of an amicable relationship with the humans, living at the edge of the forest: he learns more about their traditions and arts, while the humans receive his guidance and blessings in various matters of living, craftsmanship and arts. Eventually, Kaveh's knowledge and magical powers catch the eye of Lord Sangemah Bay, who resides in and governs one of the bigger settlements at the forest's border. She makes a deal with Kaveh that, despite providing him with valuable (in his eyes) experience of working with humans on some of his grandest architectural projects, costs him a lot - meaning he has to give away lots of his blessed feathers, which makes his remaining magic much weaker (and generally undermines his health for a bit). Alhaitham is not a huge fan of such approach (in his eyes, Kaveh is wasting his powers and time for nothing, endangering himself), and so a conflict between him and Kaveh breaks. As a result, Kaveh flees their home, secluding himself while he's focusing on other projects he finds curious. Kaveh keeps working with humans, and though Alhaitham certainly keeps an eye on Kaveh's wellbeing, he does not make it easy for humans to reach him. So what if there are new random magical seals, obstacles, almost-traps and riddles appearing here and there when people try to get to Kaveh? It's a magical forest, things happen! (Kaveh knows that Alhaitham does this on purpose, and Alhaitham knows that Kaveh knows, and it leads to them indirectly, and then directly bickering and arguing. The magical forest quite possibly grows very tired of them. Their friends Tighnari and Cyno certainly do, but alas.)

The new equilibrium, found by Alhaitham and Kaveh, is challenged once more when Kaveh leaves to the Lord Sangemah Bay's city to direct yet another one of his grand projects. They do not see each other for a long while. Despite all the challenges, Kaveh's relationship with Dori gradually grows stronger - the two value their partnership - and Kaveh ends up making friends amongst humans. However, not everyone is happy about Lord Sangema Bay's growing friendship with the "deity of blessings" personified. As some people come to despise her for her wealth, influence and ever growing power, so do they come to despise the bird of paradise.

When the project is complete, the time for celebration comes. Kaveh gets to attend a feast by Dori's side as a guest of honour, and is invited to stay the night in her palace before returning to the forest. Kaveh agrees: he's been spending all his days and nights at the building site, and resting a night before returning home would be nice. As the night goes on, however, Kaveh begins to feel weary and unwell - the new type of wine he was served did him no good. He excuses himself early for the night and, as soon as he gets to his bed, he's out cold.

After an undetermined amount of time (in what appears to be the middle of the night), Kaveh wakes up because of immense pain in his back.

As he gradually comes to his senses, he has a horrible realization: one of his wings was cut off when he was asleep. Alerting the guards and Dori yields no results: the intruder escaped, presumably with Kaveh's wing, and there are no traces of them left. While Kaveh gets immediately attended to, he goes in shock and, eventually, loses consciousness.

When the messengers form the city arrive to the forest, Alhaitham receives them reluctantly at first, but as soon as he hears of what happened, he rushes to the city. He ends up taking Kaveh back to the forest, hoping that its healing magic will help restore his wing. However, nothing seems to work: neither spells, nor the powers of nature, not even Tighnari's medicine. Though the wound is slowly healing, Kaveh remains unconscious for days. To get more information on what happened, Alhaitham returns to the city to question Dori together with Cyno (who's also to continue the investigation within the city once Alhaitham returns home), while Tighnari stays with Kaveh.

Though the questioning concludes that Dori knows nothing and is willing to assist in the search of the perpetrator, Cyno concludes that she was not thorough enough in ensuring Kaveh's safety and overall security of the celebration in general, revealing that Dori recklessly cut corners here and there. Furious, Alhaitham leaves Dori his cursed feather, giving her an ultimatum: she has to find the perpetrator and give them to Alhaitham to deal the final punishment. Until then, her city is doomed to slowly crumble into decay and oblivion. Dori accepts the deal.

Alhaitham returns to the forest to look after Kaveh, while Cyno remains in the city to continue the search. When Alhaitham comes back, Kaveh is finally awake. However, he remains extremely closed-off, practically a shadow of himself. The recovery process is slow and challenging, but Alhaitham does his best to support Kaveh in all ways that matter. Kaveh struggles with healing: the loss of a wing affected not only his body, but also his mental state and magic. He cannot transform, he can barely use any of his magical skills, and he cannot fly anymore, which hurts him most of all. It takes a while for Kaveh to get on his feet (quite literally), even longer to finally leave his room. He also feels guilty for being in Alhaitham's care, because he remembers all of the Alhaitham warnings about the humans he didn't listen to, and so lots of internal conflict ensues.

Meanwhile Alhaitham does all he can to try and navigate the situation. He looks after Kaveh's healing process; brings back his blueprints and equipment from Kaveh's place so that he has enough to work with if he wishes; he also (to the best of his ability) remodels their home to make it more accessible to Kaveh. Given that their natural method of moving around their house was flying (whether in form of birds of half-humans), Alhaitham now implements more adjustments for walking or climbing. (When Kaveh feels good enough to leave his room, he's amazed by what Alhaitham managed to achieve. He also helps fix some of the constructions, given he's the one with the experience in architecture.) Alhaitham and Kaveh grow closer, slowly unpacking and mending their relationship, turning it into something new and beautiful.

At the same time, Alhaitham continues to watch the forest borders - to make sure that no intruders interrupt Kaveh's recovery and their peaceful life together. One day he notices an interesting sight: a small, but beautiful shrine appeared right by the forest. He decides to investigate; upon approaching the shrine, he meets Nilou (whom he saw in the palace when he visited Dori). She explains to him that, after he and Kaveh left the city, a group of people decided to organize a shrine, dedicated to Kaveh, to pray for his recovery. Nilou explains that in their eyes it's the least they can offer for all the help that their city received in the past and as amends for the pain they have caused. Alhaitham warns her not to get any closer to the forest, but the action of people leaves a lasting impression on him.

Meanwhile, Cyno's investigation progresses. Cyno writes to Alhaitham that together with Dori they managed to find and capture the perpetrator. Questioning reveals no useful information, but Cyno suspects that there might be more to the attack on Kaveh than they anticipated. To uphold his end of the deal Alhaitham goes to the city to deliver the punishment to the attacker and to undo the curse he put on Dori's city. Before he leaves, Kaveh, scared of what might happen to Alhaitham, sews into his cloak a blessed feather for protection (because Alhaitham wouldn't accept it outright). While Alhaitham is away, Kaveh begins working on a new project: a mechanical wing.

When Alhaitham gets to the city, he is led to the cell where the attacker is being held. Cyno and Dori are by his side for the final questioning. The man - a mere mortal (with strange red-ish eyes), one of Dori's citizens - keeps talking in circles, making less and less sense with each new word. Alhaitham lets Cyno and Dori go before rendering the punishment. When the curse (one of Alhaitham's darkest yet) is finally prepared, suddenly, the tables are turned. The perpetrator attacks Alhaitham, but his movements seem unnatural, almost like those of a puppet. Alhaitham realizes, that the man is being controlled by someone with prowess for strong, incredibly dark magic that seems similar to that of the Desert. The strange puppet manages to overpower Alhaitham in a fight, but cannot harm him (due to the protection from Kaveh's feather). The perpetrator manages to escape, taking with him Alhaitham's cursed feather (they seemed to be pleased to receive it. Alhaitham fears to think what they will use it for).

Dori and Cyno pick up the investigation, with Cyno going straight to the Desert. Dori begins reinforcing the city (her people discover that Alhaithams curse (now lifted) awakened Miasma deep under the ground. The Miasma begins to slowly spread, seemingly in the direction of the Sumeru Forest). Cyno sends back a message, confirming that strong and dark magic seems to be gathering within the Desert, possibly for the purpose of destroying the magical forest.

Alhaitham manages to get back to Kaveh and tell him of what happened in the city. In order to be able to protect the forest together with Alhaitham, Kaveh doubles down on his efforts to create a mechanical working wing. Everything works, besides the golden feathers - they need to be blessed in order to allow the mechanism to work as intended, but Kaveh does not have enough power for it. Alhaitham takes a risk and brings the feathers to the shrine, created by Nilou and other humans, so that they could bless them for Kaveh. (They are short of one feather eventually, and Alhaitham gives Kaveh one of his own, his first blessed feather, to complete the wing.)

TLDR: Kaveh works on restoring his wing and faith in himself and humanity; Alhaitham learns that humanity is not always evil. Dori and Cyno discover that the escaped perpetrator (caugh controlled by Dottore caugh) used Kaveh to get to Alhaitham to gain his cursed feather for completing some sort of ancient ritual to unseal the forbidden knowledge magic deep within the Desert in roder to unleash it on the magical forest, slumbering God of Wisdom and human cities. Kaveh learns to curse his feathers (while opposing Dottore in a final fight), and Alhaitham learns to bless his. Humans and Sumeru Forest continue to coexist peacefully. Alhaitham and Kaveh live together happily ever after.

5. Pacific Rim!AU, where Kaveh and Alhaitham used to be pilots of a Jaeger, but during one of their battles they suffered too much damage. In order to save Alhaitham and what remains of their Jaeger, Kaveh takes most of the damage by severing already unstable connection between Alhaitham and Jaeger's system. Both barely survive the encounter, but meanwhile Alhaitham manages to recover fast, the damage Kaveh has taken leaves him in a critical condition, eventually resulting in him being unable to ever pilot a Jaeger ever again (and putting many new restraints on his usual daily life).

As soon as Kaveh comes to his senses, the two have a huge fight about Kaveh's rash decision, and eventually break off their friendship. They don't see each other for a long, long time.

As the time goes on, Kaveh learns how to live with the changes that his body sustained with the help of his service dog Mehrak. Eventually he takes on a job at one of the Jaeger construction facilities (together with his friend Tighnari), studying Kaiju and creating new Jaeger modifications - though no Kaiju has been seen in the past several years, the world is still afraid of their return.

When the suspicion of the new Kaiju appearance arises, new pilot recruits and ex-pilots are summoned to the facility. There, Kaveh meets Alhaitham for the first time in years. After their fallout, Alahitham resigned from piloting Jaegers, yet now he had no choice but to return to train new recruits (and possibly resume his role of a Jaeger pilot). Now once again the two have to work together as a part of a team in face of approaching danger, trying to resolve their past conflicts and overcome their fears and insecurities along the way (when deep down they simply want to keep each other safe).

TLDR: Kaveh & service animal Mehrak is a neat concept I'd love to see more of, just as a concept in general. I think this one could be an interesting story idea centered mostly around Kaveh's day to day life. Additionally, Alhaitham who used to be only drift compatible with Kaveh but now suddenly discovers he's drift compatible with Cyno. I need more Cyno & Alhaitham camaraderie I think it would do them lots of good (at least in this specific AU setting lol).

6. Oxenfree!AU where Kaveh and Alhaitham are two ex-best friends turned reluctant coworkers (photo-journalist and journalist respectively) working on writing a piece about the disappearances of a group of teenagers that happened at the Edwards Island several years prior (timeline somewhere between the first and the second games). The radio shenanigans ensue, making the two face their past, possible futures and, most importantly, their present. (In Oxenfree tuning into certain radio sequences can temporarily mess up time-space shenanigans, just fyi).

TLDR: I just think that this setting could facilitate some character exploration that would be very fun.

7. Modern MermanKaveh!AU, post-fallout, where it's a little bit more about haunting Alhaitham (and the narrative), than being a merman. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, Kaveh drowns one day, trying to save someone from the water. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, he doesn't really die, being stuck in between (existence and death, normal life and the necessity to live in water). Kaveh manages, for quite a while even!

But of course Alhaitham has to come back and turn his world upside down once again.

TLDR: can you tell Alhaitham's quote about drowning stuck with me huh (and I made it literal lol). On a serious note... Idk, vibes??? I want to see the "stuck in the middle" Kaveh, whatever that entails. Some existential explorations. And the development of his relationship with Alhaitham, of course. // Kaveh is a merman unable to fully live the life he used to have, and Alhaitham doesn't know that he survived (for a while), alternatively "let me help to save you from metaphorical and literal drowning" Alhaitham and "I learned to live like this, this is what my norm now looks like" Kaveh.

8. Another Modern MermanKaveh!AU/DrownedGhostKaveh!AU, because I apparently have no self-control (I feel like I should also clarify that whenever I mention a mermaid, I think of them more as of ghosts of drowned people and less as mermaids-mermaids, the half-human half-marine creature ones). This idea was initially prepared for chili/zhongchi but it's been sooooooooooooooooooo long and I still haven't done anything substantial for it so I'm borrowing it from myself for myself and tweaking it for kavetham because I figured it could fit them. So here it goes,

Alhaitham is a scientist/marine biologist that moves from the city to a much smaller port town, getting himself a place in a local partially repurposed lighthouse. Kaveh is a merman, who has been dead for a long while and who's been living within local waters ever since he drowned. Alhaitham leads a very isolated life, going through a rather rough patch emotionally (maybe a badly ended past relationship and relocation from an established group of friends to a remote place brought up past negative emotions related to loss that were bottled up for a while. who knows, not me). Anyways, Alhaitham's not doing too well, but seaside walks help him unwind, even if for a short periods of time. During one of such walks, he finds an old pendant washed ashore. He picks up his find, hoping to do some research on it outside of his work time (because research is his fun-time).

He expects this to be a brief excursion into local history. He does not expect to become haunted by the ghost of a man to whom this pendant belonged to way back when.

Kaveh, in turn, is extremely excited to finally, finally be able to get out of the sea to the surface. He intends to stay ashore as long as possible and, well, if he just so gets to amuse himself by haunting a grumpy marine biologist that refuses to believe in merpeople, ghosts of drowned and other supernatural occurences - who's he to say no?

TLDR: this AU can go two ways (in my eyes): the happy ending way and probably more gothic-horror-story-esque ending. So, Alahitham is cursed to be haunted by Kaveh: for a while he's the only one who can see him, with Kaveh being something akin to a ghost. However, the longer Kaveh haunts Alhaitham, the more human he becomes (others can see him, he cannot phase through walls anymore, etc.). The curse in itself goes something like this: the cursed thing, after being picked up/taken in, cannot be thrown away and will always come back. The ghost, tied to the haunted thing, shall haunt whoever picks the cursed thing (the thing should be tied to the ghost, but may not necessarily belong to them) and drain their life energy. The ghost can become free and human again if the haunting goes long enough and they kill the human who picked the cursed object in the end during a very specific time that doesn't occur too often (proverbial blue moon, idk). If they don't kill the human and decide to let them go, then the ghost will seize to exist and the human will regain their strength. (An alternative option to the ghost dying for a less angsty au: the ghost voluntarily takes back the cursed object and returns to the place where they died, but then they will never be able to haunt anyone ever again. The effect of the curse on the haunted remain, but much weaker).

In this case, let's say Kaveh and Alhaitham stay by each other's side from half a year to a year, idk. They grow closer, eventually becoming friends and maybe more (the usual kavetham shenanigans Kaveh falls first but Alhaitham falls harder). Alhaitham's mental state gradually improves, yet overall he becomes weaker because of the curse (to the point that it becomes a serious concern), which Kaveh blames himself for. The appointed time approaches (both Kaveh and Alhaitham are in on the details of the curse), and Kaveh, seeing it as an opportunity to set Alhaitham free, manages to separate himself from Alhaitham. Kaveh is ready to return to the sea/merge with it (ah yes the classic Little Mermaid influence does anybody feel it lol). However, Alhaitham sees through his plan and arrives just in time to stop him. They have a confrontation. Eventually, they manage to lift the curse (as you can see I have not figured out exactly how this can happen but! it definitely can!) with Kaveh becoming human again and Alhaitham regaining his health. The two continue to live together happily ever after.

The other scenario is practically the same, but it's more ghothic? and abstract (and probably more suitable for the og pairing it was made for, but i'll throw it in anyways). I have not engaged with gothic literature much and thus don't have much experience in how it works/how to write it, but the idea is that Kaveh is more of a projection of Alhaitham's grief than a ghost fo a drowned person (in other words, he's definitely a ghost, but his presence is also much more symbolical). The story follows quite similar beats, except the setting of the curse is a bit different: it's more of a "kill first or be killed" thingy with a deadline. Kaveh earnestly tries to drown Alhaitham at first through various means, but the more time they spend together, the more Kaveh sees of Alhaitham's life and pain and feels sympathetic for him. Despite the curse, Kaveh tires to help Alhaitham in various ways; and it works! Alhaitham gradually begins to feel better; the two grow closer to each other (more in a platonic way).

So now the precedent is that though Alhaitham's overall doing better, the curse still preys on him, hindering his life in various ways that become more and more serious/dangerous (the curse's deadline approaches, and it tries to survive the best way it can through Kaveh's influence on Alhaitham). Eventually, Kaveh lets Alhaitham go, merging with the sea (once again, yes, it was partially inspired by the Little Mermaid). Alhaitham realizes what happened and tries to look for Kaveh, but it is in vain.

Eventually, life goes on.

Bonus Elden Ring AU (because guess who suddenly went on a lore video watching spree): Kaveh is a craftsman and one of the inhabitants of Castle Morne who managed to escape before it was overrun by Misbegotten. He's a follower of St. Trina and Miquella (he doesn't follow Miquella at first, but slowly he comes to suspect that the two are one and the same). After escaping from Castle Morne, he finds his way to Jarburg, where he is welcomed to stay and be the new Potentate.

Alhaitham is from a distant branch of Carian royal family and a scholar at the Academy of Raya Lucaria. Quite possibly explored an area of studies similar to Sellen's. Eventually he separates himself from both Academy and his family, becoming a wandering scholar.

The two meet somewhere nearby Jarburg when Kaveh gets ambushed by the same people who were trying to get to Alhaitham. The two fight them off. Kaveh, trying to help injured Alhaitham, leads him to Jarburg. The two continue living together there ever since (not without hiccups, but they're doing their best).

TLDR: this one is short and very simple because I just started diving into the Elden Ring's lore, but I just. Really wanted to make some AU for them. I also desperately wanted it to be peaceful and happy one despite it being a seeming impossibility for anything dark souls/elden ring related, but one can dream. If I were to make this one darker I'd probably expand on the duality of their two characters here, and how Alhaitham probably used to conjure spells on humans (with gaining knowledge being his sole life purpose for a long time) and has challenges with comprehending the world outside of a framework of pure logic, and how Kaveh gets an increasing tendency of escaping to the dream world/wherever Miquella is in order to alleviate his mental turmoil (maybe he witnessed too much during his escape from the Castle), and how the two have opposing perspectives on the idea of worshipping gods, and- like, there's a lot that can be done. But I also just really really really want them to simply be happy together in a jar village, leading a peaceful life.

That's it for now! Thank you for reading all of this, I can't commend your patience enough if you got to the end of this list!!!✨🎉✨

Maybe in the future I will unpack some of these aus. who knows.

[isnt-it-pretty]

Okay but imagine a Cyno & Kaveh childhood friends AU

(References to both their backstories)

Cyno was a shy child, small and traumatized. He followed around Cyrus like a shadow, clinging to robes and also looking a second away from running. It was concerning. He needed to be socialized, but it wasn't as if Cyrus could stick him in the Akademiya children's program and tell him to sink or swim. (Well, he could. Cyno would survive it, but he wouldn't make friends. If anything, it would only serve to isolate him more. Children are cruel, especially to those who are different.)

That narrowed things down considerably, but then Cyrus remembered a coworker, an almost friend. He worked with a Rtawahist scholar with a son around Cyno's age. The man and his wife were extremely kind people who loved their son dearly, which made Cyrus comfortable with letting them be around Cyno.

Kaveh is so eager to meet a new friend that leading up to the visit, he has to be told to calm down the excitement. Cyno is shy and easily startled, so Kaveh has to remember to keep his voice down and his hands to himself because Cyno doesn't like being touched.

The meeting doesn't go badly. Kaveh and his parents come over to Cyrus' house, and Kaveh immediately zeroes in on where Cyno is half-hidden behind Cyrus, but he remembers to stay calm. He asks quietly if Cyno would like to see his drawings and Cyno (with Cyrus' encouragement) nods.

They end up sitting next to each other as Kaveh goes on long rambles about each of his drawings. Most other children don't care, but Cyno is very good at listening and is content to let Kaceh talk enough for them both. On Cyno's end, Kaveh doesn't get angry or think he's weird for being so quiet.

That's the start of their lifelong friendship. They go to each other's houses, share goals and stories. They're friends, like normal children. It's as normal as Cyno has ever been.

Then, a couple of years later, Kaveh's father dies. Cyno sits next to him on the couch while Cyrus tries to comfort Kaveh's distraught mother in the other room. Cyno has never been good at talking, at comforting-- it's usually Kaveh who does that, but Kaveh is ghostly and silent. So Cyno reaches for his hand and leans closer until their shoulders bump, because what else is there to do?

(Kaveh doesn't cry around his mother, but he does around Cyno. Curled up in each other's beds, he sobs into Cyno's shoulder and says it's his fault his father is dead. He never quite believes it when Cyno says it isn't true.)

Even now, Cyno still remembers the guilt and sadness that clung to Kaveh (he worries, too, because he knows it's still there, buried deep beneath the mask Kaveh wears.) Meanwhile, Kaveh still remembers Cyno as that traumatized kid who flinched at loud voices like he expected to be hurt.

[tofuiharbinger]

General concept, a little different from my usual content.

Imagine you’re isekai’d into Teyvat while you’re still a student. It’s nice that you have all the power and authority to construct your own education, but which characters will you select to teach you and for what? Anyone would be honored to offer their expertise to their Grace, meaning your choices are essentially endless...

Would you want Thoma to teach you how to cook? Or would you go to Xiangling for more... unconventional (but no less delicious!)... methods?

How about asking one of the knights to teach you combat? Best to do it on the down low, though. Most of your characters are well versed in combat and not at all affiliated with the KoF...

What other examples can you think of? I want to know!

(PS: Yes, I did think of Ningguang with math but that’s essentially a curse word here /j)

[enden-k]

tired in all ways. i offer sketch before i disappear

[ruleofvee]

“You are becoming troublesome,” says a voice, as Cyno fights and kicks and struggles uselessly. “I believe it is time you were dismissed from your post. We can’t have you knowing too much, and so it is better that you know nothing at all, ever again.”

The capsule - forbidden knowledge, divine knowledge - is brought closer. His akasha terminal, reflexively, connects, and it’s like a shock through Cyno’s system, like a bolt of electricity through his neural passageways, like torture.

“It’s such a shame,” the voice says, “that greedy desert dwellers always try to reach above their station. Isn’t it?”

[momochiikawa]

kavetham

wipes

cw: modern!au college!au its modern akademiya basically, pre relationship, fluff idk, alhaitham is whipped

they had only one class together. twice a week.

and it's not like they see eachother only then. they were roomates, but even then Alhaitham felt something strange in his chest whenever the loudly obnoxious blonde sat right next to him, doodling in his notebook while the professor didn't bother to use the microphone, so half of the class didn't understand anything.

but alhaitham didn't mind.

because kaveh was right next to him.

and he could spend hours, days even, staring at his pointy nose currently tainted with some red paint, long eyelashes, pretty lips biting at the end of his pencil, and scarlet eyes focused on his small doodle of the house of daena.

"what?" the blonde's eyes were suddenly on him and he knitted his brows "you're staring."

"you have something on your nose" alhaitham replied and averted his focus to the professor again.

"seriously? and you didn't tell me earlier?" Kaveh said as he pulled out his phone to check if something is really there.

there was some paint on his bridge.

"you just enjoy watching me make a fool of myself don't you?" kaveh huffed and started searching his bag for something to wipe it off, when he felt a hand tapping him lightly on the shoulder. alhaitham was handing him a small pack of wet tissues.

kaveh was surprised he had something like this, and even was willing to share it with him.

"thank you" he said when he finally took the wipes from alhaitham. when kaveh used one and wanted to give the rest back, he declined. "keep it. you might need them more than i do"

kaveh wanted to protest but alhaitham had already put his headphones on and started packing up along with the rest of the class.

he stared at the wipes in his hand. they were scented like fruits, and the packaging was cute, with a little panda picture on it.

the panda kinda looked like alhaitham. all he needed to do was draw some headphones on its head, grumpy eyebrows and ta dam! there he was.

"i bet the panda would be a better roommate than him" kaveh thought to himself. he still wanted to give them back to alhaitham, he didn't need to be even more indebted by him than he already was.

before alhaitham had the chance to walk out, kaveh was poking him on his back to get his attention. to his satisfaction, alhaitham reacted to the sudden touch with a slight jump.

he slightly pulled off his headphones with a sight, and looked at kaveh expectantly.

"i don't need them, really." kaveh said while handing the wipes to him.

"just take them." alhaitham said while putting on his earpieces again. "i bought them for you anyways." he glanced at him one more time and took off. alhaitham thanks the gods kaveh doesn't notice him blushing.

to say kaveh was surprised is an understatement.

his jaw was on the floor.

"what did he mean by that??? he buys things for me?? and then carries them with him incase i need them???" his eyes were wide open while he automatically packed up and started walking to the next class, the damn pack of wipes still in his hand.

a/n: theyre so sillg omg

[nevergenshin]

Be gay do thoughtcrime

[droplet-dread-cat]

Harbinger to Vahumana Scholar Pipeline AU

The so-called "Hat Guy" draws the Tsaritsa's attention with his various archon-critical publications and she's interested in getting him to join the Fatui, as he's been seen having a vision and being adept at fighting. With Signora dead and the position of Sixth notoriously empty, the Tsaritsa desperately needs new potential Harbinger canditates. ~*~

so the Tsaritsa sends Childe to infiltrate the Akademiya - more precisely, the Vahumana Darshan. Why Childe? Well, he's rekindled his friendship with the elusive Mr Zhongli and said friendship had the unintentional side effect of Childe learning so much about Liyue that he's basically become an expert on the nation. Turns out gods, especially lonely archons who love to share the history of the nation they once ruled, can and will info dump everything about aforementioned nation if there's an eager ear listening. ~*~

Childe enters the Akademiya under his civilian name with no problems. unluckily, it turns out Professor Hat Guy is an elusive scholar who rarely gives lectures and those are quite spontaneous as well as held exclusively for students in their last two semesters. Catching Professor Hat Guy outside of his lecture hours is also next to impossible, since he "flies away" when the bell rings. (Whatever that's supposed to mean.) ~*~

There is, however, a box that's rumoured to have been put up by the dendro archon herself where one can throw in a question for Professor Hat Guy. The downside is that the scholar discards all questions he doesn't want to answer. Childe's twenty questions have been completely ignored. ~*~

Childe decides he'll have to skip a few semesters for Professor Hat Guy to take him seriously... and he'll need to somehow impress the guy enough to land himself in his lectures. In typical Childe fashion, he throws himself into his studies with the same reckless abandon that's usually reserved for honing his fighting prowess - foregoing sleep to cram knowledge and write paper after paper on various unexplored topics concerning Snezhnaya's and Liyue's historical relations. ~*~

At first, Childe absolutely hates this undercover job but the more time he spends in the Palace of Daena's Vahumana section, the more he becomes invested in the history of his homeland as well as the history of Zhongli's nation. With Rex Lapis Morax only a letter away, Childe also starts sending out inquiries on several topics, spanning from the evolution of wildlife in the last six thousand years to the emigration pattern of Liyue's people. (And if those letters bring them closer together, then that's just an added bonus.) ~*~

But despite Childe's evergrowing knowledge he's still nothing special, just another face in the sea of students. He needs to do something that hasn't been done before - something straight up impossible - for Professor Hat Guy to ever consider letting him into his lectures. ~*~

Then it hits him: The Abyss. Nobody has ever researched the history, the architecture and the wildlife of the Abyss in detail before. Obviously, since they'd have most likely died a painful death if they ever went there, and the ones who frequent it wouldn't want or care to write descriptions about some random ruin in the Abyss. Childe, however. Childe had been there before and his Foul Legacy grants him the power to enter it at will. ~*~

Childe requests leave to do independent research, gets it easily granted because he's built himself a reputation as quite the diligent student, and returns two months later with an entire dissertation handwritten on blood-stained paper. ~*~

"Unravelling Mysteries: A Glimpse into the Abyss" by Ajax is promptly accepted, printed and sold out within days. The claims in the book would have been ridiculous had there not been pictures but Childe filled five entire kamera rolls with detailed close-ups of numerous plants, ruins, runes and, in typical Tartaglia fashion, the corpses of Abyssal creatures. ~*~

With his work becoming such a quick success, Professor Hat Guy is forced to acknowledge Childe. ~*~

The first time they meet, Professor Hat Guy scowls and whispers haughtily: "What do you want, Tartaglia?" - which, admittedly, strikes Childe speechless for a solid fifteen seconds. Then he catches himself and explains why he is at the Akademiya. Childe expects many responses but what he doesn't expect is for Professor Hat Guy to laugh until he's wheezing and crying. ~*~

"Why is that so funny to you? Her Majesty even thought about letting you fight for the position of Sixth Harbinger-" It's safe to say Professor Hat Guy has never laughed this much in his entire life. When he's finally calmed down, he answers with such a mean, sarcastic, venomous no that Childe can't help but slightly flinch away from it. Professor Hat Guy seems to have a heart buried somewhere though, because he clears his throat and says: "Your writing isn't half bad. If you're serious about your studies and aren't just on a horriby cosmically ironic recruitement trip, then I'll let you into my lecture. Buer knows how desperately you tried to will your way in." and then he's off - literally flying away. (Huh.) ~*~

Despite Professor Hat Guy's harsh refusal, Childe enters his lecture without hesitation. ~*~

Bonus: Every time Childe shows up at the Zapolyarny Palace, Dottore tries to kill him for the audacity of Childe actually graduating the Akademiya with honours.

[barxlupin]

Written in stone Every rule, every word Centuries old and unbending

"Stay in your place" "Better seen and not heard"

But now that story is ending! Coz I, I cannot start to crumble So come on and try! Try to shut me and cut me down!

I won't be silenced! You can't keep me quiet! Won't tremble when you try it! All I know if that I won't go speechless!

[villvillhaitham]

When Al Haitham is blackmailed into staying the acting Grand Sage... Someone has to deliver the list of potential interim Scribes.

Al Haitham's life is a comedy.