#whew. havent done this much creative writing in a while

[adriftwoods]

okay so here’s what ive come up with so far for a quell!aubrey au. major taz amnesty spoilers btw

the quell is a lot more mobile and has a greater role in the upkeep of sylvain in this au. she and sylvain are like the yin to the other’s yang, as there can be no creation without destruction. the quell is why people on sylvain can become ghosts after death, and she is present to serve as a balancing force for sylvain.

she resides in her blood-red ruby fragment for years, and falls in love with the Little family just as sylvain did in canon. she lets herself be reborn in their baby girl, hoping to protect her and maybe, just maybe, find her way back home.

Aubrey Little is a very special little girl. she’s also a bit.... strange. some would call her weird, or creepy, but she’s not actively malicious at all. she’s quiet, reserved, and levelheaded. she’s not pessimistic, but she is more of a realist. she grasps the concepts of pain and death  much better than most would expect from a child, and it’s a bit unsettling to those who don’t know her well. she’s still happy, and makes friends easily with those who get used to her slightly off-putting exterior. she’s good at reading people, especially after spending more time with them. she is known as an understanding person, who can seem a bit somber at times.

she isn’t easy to upset, but when she breaks down, she breaks down hard. her outbursts are rare and intense, and it sometimes causes her to do or say things she regrets later. the silver lining to this is that she quickly develops emotional maturity and skill with apologizing as she grows up and tries to improve her coping mechanisms and processing of emotions.

Aubrey adopts more of a goth aesthetic instead of punk rock. she grows up with her role models being wednesday addams and coraline jones. instead of fire-based magic tricks, she becomes interested in witchy, occult magic. she has a respectful interest for the paranormal, and this is what brings her to kepler during a bit of soul-searching after the death of her mother, who passed away due to what was assumed to be a badly-timed carbon monoxide buildup in their home that had been undetected due to a pair of burglars disabling all of the house alarms. Aubrey and her father had been downstairs, investigating the commotion from the intruders, and had both lost conciousness. by the time they had woken up outside, it was too late for Aubrey’s mother.

while in kepler, Aubrey spends a lot of time in the woods. she befriends rangers Duck and Juno, despite the fact that they met when Aubrey wandered into a restricted section of the woods. during one of her excursions, she runs into a monster. it was like a twisted, awful, horribly large bear. she sees it in the distance and flees without another look. the first sign of civilization is the amnesty lodge. she rushes inside, and the woman in charge introduces herself as Mama, and asks what on earth had scared the daylights out of Aubrey. she tries to explain what she saw in the woods, but Mama brushes it off as just a regular bear that she hadn’t quite seen right. reluctantly, Aubrey accepts the explanation, but she’s still wary of going back out into the night. Mama offers her a room for as long as she needs it and has Barclay make her a warm meal.

Aubrey is still curious about what she saw in the woods. the next day, she goes back out to explore, despite herself. she makes her way to where she saw the bear-thing, but it’s nowhere to be found. she does, however, discover an injured rabbit on the forest floor. it has no physical wounds, but it’s breathing shallowly, as if close to death. then, Aubrey feels something..... odd. she somehow knows what the rabbit is feeling, that his life is draining, fading, still terrified of the unnatural, bear-like creature that had been trying to assimilate him into the mass of animals that made up its form. the monster had been interrupted, at the last second, when it sensed a young woman nearby, and it had not returned to finish the job.

Aubrey is gripped, then, by some sort of power inside her she had never noticed before. she kneels next to the rabbit, cradles him in her arms, and then in her very being. the rabbit changes then, going from brown to stark white except for a bit of black around his eyes, which become a deep red. he nuzzles into Aubrey, who feels now that the rabbit is stable again, and also linked to her. she smiles down at him, before they are both startled by a voice.

“Alright missy, the jig is up,” Mama says, approaching her. “I know magic when I see it. Now how long have you been on this planet, what other trouble have you caused, and why haven’t you come to the lodge?”

Aubrey tilts her head, confused. “What do you mean?” She stands, still holding the rabbit. “I really, honestly don’t know what I just did. And, as far as I know, I’ve been on this planet for... ever, actually.”

After a bit of explanation, Aubrey learns from a rather reluctant Mama about sylvain, and the archway, and the abominations. Mama is frustrated, and then downright flabbergasted that Aubrey is somehow human, yet performed sylvan magic without even realizing. Aubrey becomes part of the family, though, and settles in with the other sylphs rather easily after a bit of apprehension. She names her new rabbit friend professor Harold Valentine.