#xc2 au

[sturthepotofmadness]

I got a random idea for a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 au I want to throw out into the world, since I'm not too sure if I'm going to write it or not. There's technically two, but one is more of a Xenoblade 3 au and even then it's even more canon diverge-y than this one, so only the xc2 au for now.

The divergence point is a bit weird, since it would take place before Rex gets pulled into the mission to find Pyra and I'm assuming story salvager ranks works differently compared to gameplay salvager ranks (mainly that story salvager ranks go from E-D-C-B-A-S-SS in order from lowest to highest and the weird extra titles don't exist, just rank letters). Other than that, the only spoilers are the events of chapter 1, the very beginning of chapter 2, and a boss and group from chapter 3. You've been warned if you care about early game spoilers.

Anyways, time to actually talk about the au idea. Also cut after the second paragraph cuz this is long.

So let's say Rex is 14, maybe a few months out from 15 here, he's known within the Argentum salvager community, and being salvager rank C is impressive for someone so young. He's having trouble reaching a higher rank, if only because his only way to protect himself is an old sword he scraped together and getting higher ranks means salvaging at risker points, which means dealing with stronger monsters and needing a better weapon, but he doesn't want to spend what money he has on getting a better weapon.

For some reason, Vandham's Merc Group has an influx of kids that don't want to become mercenaries, so they send a group out to gather people to explain jobs to this group of kids they're taking care of. One of the groups was led by Yew since the Argentum Trade Guild can be a hot mess if you talk to the wrong person by accident and Yew is good at sorting through people. Yew sees the salvager community here and is impressed by how supportive they are of each other.

When Yew talks to one of the salvagers there and he brings up the idea of teaching some kids about salvaging. The salvager asks, "We talking Rex's age, or we talking younger?" Yew asks who Rex is and that just so happens to be the time when Rex pulls into the docks and the salvager points him out. Yew (and the mercs with him) have to process that as the salvager comments that Rex is really damn good to salvaging and probably would have a higher rank if would use his gold on getting a better weapon instead of sending it back to his home town or repairing damage to his hut on Azurda.

Yew's crew decides to speak to Rex once he's free and before he leaves, so continue talking around Argentum. They're... really unimpressed with 97% of the Nopon, with the only ones they aren't unimpressed by being Zuzu (makes those noodles all by himself) and Falala (is a chef wanting to be something greater). However, they can't really ask either of them if they want to speak to said kids because Zuzu can't leave his job due to the popularity and Falala has a full time job.

They see Rex finishing up with the stuff he wanted to do at Argentum and Yew goes over to him. Rex sees him and asks what he's up to and Yew explains he's looking for people to explain to some kids about some jobs they could do and how unimpressed he's been with everyone from Argentum except the salvager and exactly two Nopon too attached to their job. Rex comments "yea that's Nopon for you" and asks if they found what they're looking for. Yew says that one of the other salvagers suggested Rex because Rex is closer to the kid's age and might have their attention more than some random adult. Rex thinks about it, then says that he's willing to do it, but only if it's fine if he brings Gramps along. Yew doesn't know who Gramps is, assumes it's someone important to Rex, and asks if he can speak to this Gramps. Rex drags him off to Azurda, who is Gramps, which Yew has to accept that of course the kid calls this titan something else.

Gramps and Yew talk for a bit before Gramps gives his go ahead and they head off to Uraya.

One travel later and all the merc groups have the people they managed to convince to speak to the kids and meet at Uraya's capital before they all start heading down to Garfont Village. There's 6 people (including Rex) they convinced, but it's better than nothing.

Once they get close to Garfont village, Rex notices a massive spider thing with a golden glow further up the cliff, with the road splitting off there to up there and to Garfont Village. Rex asks about the giant spider thing, some of the mercs look over and promptly go "why the hell is there a giant Elder Arachno with a blade". They get to Garfont Village, throw the volunteers at the kids, then tell Vandham about the spider Rex spotted (and also admitting that they wouldn't have gave a second glance at it if Rex didn't mention it).

Vandham takes some mercs to go demolish the Elder Arachno while the six visitors talk to the kids, though they're clearly only interested in the talks given by Rex and some Driver from either Mor Ardian or Gormott.

Vandham and who he took with him return with the meat, shell, and drops of the Elder Arachno as the last lecture ends. It took so long to kill the spider since it called friends and they wanted all of that meat for rations. The visitors are free to stay for the night before heading back home or just head back now without any help from the mercs. They all decide to stick around and Vandham asks one of the mercs to pull aside who pointed out the spider.

Yew grabs Rex, mentioning the boss wants to speak to him since Rex was the one to point out the spider. Rex is confused but follows as they go over to Vandham. Vandham makes sure Rex is the one who pointed out the spider and Rex is like "yea, i saw something glowing in the distance and i saw it was coming from some sort of spider". Vandham pats his shoulder, thanks Rex for pointing it out before it could become a problem, and drops the Beastly Core Crystal in Rex's hand. Rex is confused but Vandham explained the glow was from a Blade and that's the crystal the Blade went back into and Rex is free to keep it. Rex does decide to hold onto it and Vandham shooes him off after telling him to "awaken it when it glows or do smth with it".

One night and travel time later, Rex is back in Argentum and one of the salvagers ask how the trip was. Rex says all he had to do was explain the basics of salvaging to a group of 6-10 year old kids and he got a core crystal because he pointed out some spider that ended up being dangerous kinda close to the village. The salvager is surprised Rex got gifted a core crystal and asks what he'll do it with. After a moment, Rex says he's going to hold onto it until "it glows", since the village leader mentioned awakening it once it starts glowing. The salvager says that if it does start glowing to do it in Argentum so the other salvagers can see. Rex agrees and they head their ways.

About a week or two later, the core crystal starts glowing again after Rex had to smack some crabs back into the Cloud Sea. He goes back to Argentum to turn in his haul for payment (and paying the dock person) before going over to where the salvagers are meeting up. The salvagers greet Rex and ask if anything interesting happened. He takes out the now glowing core crystal and someone asks if he's gonna try and awaken a blade. Rex thinks for a moment, then says yea. Some Nopon nearby hear that and ask to see Rexrex attempt to awaken blade. Azurda moves to get a better look at the happenings as a group starts forming to watch.

Rex holds the Beastly Core Crystal out and begins to focus on it and attempting to resonate with it. They watch as the crystal begins to glow and, after a burst of light, Rex is holding a special Megalance and Wulfric has appeared in front of him. The crowd is silent as Rex says hi to his blade and Wulfric introduces himself, causing a few members of the crowd to recoil.

Congrats, Rex, you're now a salvager driver before the main plot begins. Rex starts bonding with Wulfric so they can be stronger together and learning how to use the Megalance. He finds it come weirdly naturally to him, but whoever he's sparring with just says that weapons created by a Blade you trust feels more natural than some random wepaon. Wulfric also learns to be "softer" for the lack of a better term so he can calm people if they find him scary. Rex also starts salvaging in more dangerous locations once he feels ready with Wulfric's weapon and he begins getting higher ranks, managing to get to rank A before the main plot finally shows itself.

The only real ideas of how the main story would go once it gets kicked started are:

-the Torna crew being surprised by Wulfric not returning to his core crystal and promptly rampaging on them because Pyra yoinked Rex before he could die,

-Malos and Jin failing miserably to stop Wulfric from wrecking the shipwreck while Nia, Dromarch and Sever try and make sure none of the other people on the shipwreck aren't harmed and get off the wreck,

-Rex and Pyra have a bit of an easier time against Malos thanks to Wulfric wrecking shit but still needing to be saved by Nia and Azurda,

-and Pyra not being able to wake Rex up herself after they crash on Gormott because Wulfric is very protective of his driver that nearly died but is somehow alive thanks to this new blade that randomly decided Rex is now her driver.

Not too sure how much else the story would change, other than they would probably have to come up with something to hide both pieces of green core crystal on Rex and Pyra when they have to disguise Pyra since their original excuse in canon wouldn't work because of Wulfric (... and also Rex being more well known because of the whole salvager driver thing with a high rank).

[frickingnerd]

nothing can come between us

pairing: pyra x gn!reader

summary: you're a troublemaker who never cared much about other people. that is until you meet pyra, who becomes the only person that matters to you…

tags: high school au, good girl x bad boy/girl, troublemaker!reader, pyra being harassed/bullied, protective!reader, mentions of nia

a/n: honestly, i'd love to write more modern au stuff for xenoblade!

“you shouldn't have done that…”

pyra and you were on the rooftop of the school building. this place was off limits, but it's not like you really cared about breaking a few rules here and there. you had done far worse than trespass today, so sneaking onto the roof with pyra was nothing compared to that.

“are you listening to me?”

you had been staring off into the distance, thinking about what had transpired earlier today, when pyra's voice snapped you out of your thoughts. she glared at you, trying to look all serious. but that little pout on her face was too adorable to take her seriously.

“you're cute when you're angry at me” you grinned and leaned back against the wall, slumping down onto the ground, as your eyes remained on pyra, who soon knelt down next to you.

“i'm not– i'm not angry at you.” pyra stated calmly, after losing her cool for a second. “well… maybe a little bit. but i have every right to be, after you keep putting yourself in danger…”

“psshh” you huffed, waving your hand dismissively. “that wasn't danger. now the things i usually do after school, that's danger–”

“that's not funny” pyra pouted, pinching your cheek softly and causing you to wince. “you've gotten into a fight again and it wasn't even your first one this week. one of these days, you won't come out as the winner and…”

pyra drifted off, tears gathering in the corner of her eyes as she thought about you getting hurt. she really was too kind, worrying about others like that. it made you sigh softly, before you ruffled through her hair a bit, startling the girl.

“you're too nice, worrying about me like that. i'll be fine, alright? you really care too much, you know…” you huffed amused, trying to act all cool.

“you're the nice one, not me.” pyra suddenly states, catching you a bit off guard. “you've got into a fight with those guys because of me, right? because… of what they said about me.”

her voice was quiet and she didn't dare repeat the things those boys had said about her.

ever since pyra started spending more time with you, people's perception of her had changed. she was a model student, a typical good girl and someone who everyone thought highly of. but since she became your friend, people spread rumors about her, just like they had done with you. only that the rumors about you held some truth, as you really were a troublemaker. but pyra wasn't anything like that!

“pyra…”

“nia told me. she told me about what they said and that you only started to fight with them to defend me. there's no point denying it…”

you sighed softly. of course, nia would have to run her mouth like that. you didn't want pyra to know about any of this, but it seems like it was too late.

“i'm not apologizing for keeping you safe or defending you, alright? anyone who dares to speak about you like that deserves a beating!” you eventually huffed.

“i appreciate that you look out for me, but…”

“no ‘but’s!” you shook your head and took pyra's hand, looking deep into her eyes. “as long as there are people talking badly about you, i'll have to defend you, got it? i'm not going to let anyone treat you like that…���

[enquire]

his flames hide something deeper

I finally got around to finishing the second drawing in this duo so time to post more random au/crossover stuff...

Tried to experiment a bit with how to present traditional art again... And man, I don't think I've ever drawn Pyra and Mythra's armor properly but it was just as complex as I figured it would be even simplifying stuff a bit. Also it's altered for the boys here ofc. Sorry but I chose not to draw Yuki or Utsuro with boob windows lol. Mythra's outfit was a lot harder to modify/genderbend, I don't think I like it quite as much as Pyra's for Yuki but oh well.

They're still missing part of their core crystal here, Tsurugi has the other piece like Rex in-game. And he'd be their driver ofc. Cause, you know, reviving your partner via god powers and then having your lives tied together and all that.

don't think I would make Tsurugi a Rex equivalent tho, or at least not a salvager haha. He's probably from Mor Ardain or something like that. Rex and Tsurugi are way too incompatible in terms of character traits for that lmao. Imagine Tsurugi rattling of the salvager's code or complaining about 'gramps' yeah no that's not working for me (would be funny to draw him in the diving suit though).

I won't spoil too much but if you have played Xenoblade 2 you might see the connections between the two duos I saw. Beyond the uh, main obvious one lol. For example, Mythra and Utsuro creating a 'better' version of themselves in Pyra and Yuki, who have a lot less of their cosmically disastrous power, and personalities they consider to be superior or easier to deal with.

Also, the power of the Aegis is highly coveted by many in Alrest, similar to how divine luck is in DRA/SDRA2, and Pyra/Yuki hover under the radar more in that regard.

p.s. Yamato would probably be Addam. Or possibly Zeke because Yuki, Utsuro, and Tsurugi probably need some sort of protagonist energy to carry them along cause Tsurugi is not gonna be doing the whole hope and friendship power thing like Rex lol. Not sure about the rest but maybe Akane and Nia could fit well.

[tayopapayo]

melia and nia as totk zelda and link (inspired by deebyfeeby on twitter)

[gexfan32]

More post XC3 Alrest Headcanons

Not long after the intersection, Poppi gathers Mio and her friends and just tells them the whole story of Aionios, which initially only Poppi, Rex, and Nia were privy to. Poppi eventually formats the data into a sort of Aionios Wikipedia, for use if anyone wants to know something specific abo it the endless now

After the harrowing revelations from Poppi’s plot summary, Mio, Glimmer, Miyabi, and Sena go try to distract themselves with a game of tiger tiger kart 64

These events play out a bit differently in the Crystal of Shining Justice AU, which will be explained here, and depicted in a bonus chapter, and possibly future fics

Nia gives a basic explanation of what Aionios was to just about everyone who was with her and Mio at the time, but later, after Sena has a nightmare of her driver,, Miyabi’s death, Poppi notifies Mio and her friends that her database has finished formatting so they can investigate the events of the endless now.

[eaglefairy]

Princess of Fire, Princess of Light

Fic spotted! It's time for my annual fic post, and this year the thing that I dragged out of my mind into material form is from the xc2/zelda fusion au I literally dreamed up a few months ago!

[chipotlethief]

merp

my take on these two

[seagullcharmer]

holds him gently in my hands

[sicahyart]

"You need my help." "That's where you're wrong. I will never need *your* help."

Avarice and Malos, from this XBC2 AU fic

Funny bastard. I hope he gets punched

[theswashbucklingspy]

Fuck it, we posting the Pirateblade101 crossover AU ideas I have lying around. It’s basically the same story as normal Pirate101 but the characters all have access to varying blades. Most of what I have typed up atm is in this post.

How Combat works: Think Pirate101’s battle board system, though with some modifications. Companions have access to the blade stat modifiers, arts, battle skills, and field skills on top of their normal abilities. Specials from the blades become part of the companion’s power list, and upgrade on companion promotion. They function similarly to the guaranteed criticals some companions get, though with the effects of the special instead.

Blade List

Player and General Companions

The Pirate: They can technically have any blade NOT provided by a member of their crew, go wild with it if you write for the AU! However, my default blades would probably be Azami for Witchdoctor, Crossette on Privateer, Newt on Buccaneer, Roc on Swashbuckler, and Herald on Musketeer. Hell, if you put Rex in as a replacement for the player Pirate, feel free to give him Pyra/Mythra. Wanna add the other main characters to the crew? You can do that. Most of the rest of the list is what rare blades I’d give the varying companions.

Bonnie Anne: Vess (mainly bc of the electric element and Bonnie having a heal)

Old Scratch: Vale (her over the top edgy teenager vibe would be funny with Old Scratch’s down-to-earth magic)

Ratbeard: Gorg (Vibes)

El Toro: Theory (to go with Praxis on Sally. One of the Old El Toro’s used 2 blades.)

Monkey King: Non-driver, but is a Blade-eater (ties into JTTW with the whole immortality peaches thing)

Catbeard: Sheba (because the gays)

Gracie Conrad: Poppi (bc it fits her inventor deal) OR Poppibuster

Hawkules: Zenobia (monster hunting duo)

Choice Dependent Story Companions

Kobe Yojimbo: Perceval (purely aesthetic)

Wing Chun: Boreas (hyper man-child meets hyper child motivated by food)

Egg Shen: Nim (Vibes)

Subodai: Wulfric (Hulking big dudes with soft sides)

Kan Po: Ursula (He’d be a supportive mentor figure)

Barnabus: Agate (Big Axe…that’s it.)

Emmet: Dagas (Dagas is an offense support, much like Emmet)

Louis: Finch (Him getting frustrated at the forgetfulness amuses me.)

Mormo: Floren (Mormo doesn’t fall for Floren being manipulative.)

Sarah: Kora (Basically a repeat of Kora’s dynamic with Mythra.)

Gaspard: Perun (Vibes.)

Dead Mike: Kasandra (bad luck/good luck flux and pessimist/optimist duo)

Lucky Jack: Godfrey (Vibes of nice people. Plus pairing a bad blade with a really good companion is funny.)

Birgus: Electra (Big guy, tiny very shocky blade)

Milo: Adenine (she’s the actual brains)

Special Case

Mustang Sally: Praxis (Stole the core crystal when she left.)

[silkhy-john]

I absolutely love writing for XC2’s rare blades. Expanding their lore, expanding their relationships, getting them more involved with the world around them… yeah.

[honestlyvan]

I think I get what you mean about the weird found family stuff. I also don't really love shipping stuff, but, at least in the last couple of years, I find people get real weird about stuff like "oh he's the found family dad" sort of thing. It's hard to describe why it weirds me out, but I think it's that compulsion to give the characters "roles" in the found family stuff, where when I think of irl friends who are as close to me as family, I don't think of them as like a "sibling", they're just in my mind categorized under "family".

Of course this isn't even mentioning the weird sex negative stuff. Sometimes I want characters to have freaky weird sex stuff in their lives! Unsanitized. People into genfic can be weird about that stuff.

Yeah like for me it was the worst during the height of XC2's popularity and the absolute wealth of raging about the anime fanservice game having anime fanservice in it and the desperate urge to Divest From The Queer Horny that came with it. I don't know if the majority of the people perpetuating the moral panic eventually realised they were just useful idiots and the Killing The God That Supplanted Reality franchise was the place to get into endless unnecessary tailspins about sexual purity or not but it definitely put me off on quite a permanent basis in trying to do anything that deals with eroticism in this franchise.

It was all very prescriptivist, it was all very twee, it was all trying so hard to be cuddly and nonthreatening and safe, and it just got so uncomfortable when people were bringing all their deeply sexual baggage into the conversation over a story that, as horny as it was in places, just completely lacked any sort of genuine eroticism to me. The very few things that were hot to me that I was interested in exploring were completely ignored by-and-large, disinteresting to anyone but me, specifically. And I just couldn't get a conversational foothold about them with anyone, so I gave up.

So I kinda have this same problem with XC3 atm where I actually do find some things in it really damn hot and I am embracing the eroticism and then.... I just fail to find people with similar interests so I have no good fic to read and nobody to really talk to about it. (I've dragged two people into XC3 with me to have someone to wordvomit about the OTP to). The overt hostility against sex isn't as present, in my experience, but even if people didn't titter around the sexual aspects of the story as much.... IDK man I am tired and I am not a teenager anymore at this point themes of self-discovery and adolescence and normative pairbonding just don't do shit for me. None of it is queer and weird enough, nobody here is that attractive to me anyway, I'd much rather read gen, but then the gen is also kinda just. Like that lol.

And I know I'm probably biased, I definitely read less Xenofic than I'd like to because I look at how stuff is tagged and the summary and go "is it worth the disappointment" when there's probably good writing being done out there and I'm not giving it a chance b/c I'm fucking bitter. Like it's entirely possible that just like XC1 and XC2 didn't really have a ton of overlap in the fandom, XC2 and XC3 don't also and the things I'm really put off by the hardest are not even a thing in the fandom zeitgeist anymore.

But like man. IDK. The things I want to do with this story and the things people are doing with this story are just... really divergent. This has always been a franchise where I like the worldbuilding more than I like the characters, and then I will have like the one or two characters that I absolutely 100% am completely bananas about and they never get written in ways that I would enjoy reading.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Major 1.9 spoilers CN spoilers

Big spoilers do not read (have I covered my bases?)

(Speculation for future patches not global friendly)

For context I am a Xenoblade fan.

Alright the interchapter of 1.9 follows the events of 1.9, the Storm of 1914 and the nuking of Arcana. We get to briefly speak to other characters about the event and potential plans for the future.

This is from listening to the interchapter being stream by Merui (idk to spell) but Druvis' is the most interesting in terms of Arcana. When its out in global Ill make a better version of these posts but the way Druvis talks about Arcana is fascinating.

Right now other than Vertin, Druvis is the only person alive (sane cause Isolde) and in the Foundation who have interacted with Arcana, Druvis likely the longest between her, Vertin and Isolde (however Isolde likely only met FMN, or it was Theophil).

I cannot word for word quote Druvis but she explicitly tells Vertin Arcana is not dead, that was not enough to completely kill her. She describes Arcana as an immovable concept, an "entity" that cannot be easily defeated. Dropping a literal nuke was not enough and she will come back.

Alright. Shes described here as an immovable entity, not easily defeatable, and the whole desire of the Manus is to return to the past where arcantists had more power, overwrite human history etc. Druvis depicts her as inhuman like (not as an arcanists not being human completely but more abstractly someone or something that cannot be easily understood or reasoned with)

In some sense she reminds me of Z in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Represented as a stagnant entity that refuses look towards the future both entities represent a common human fear/ anxiety of the fear of the future, its uncertainties and the nihilistic belief that nothing will get better - for Z the solution was to arrest the worlds of Xc1 and Xc2 into the stagnant world of Aionios and for Arcana it is to manipulate the power of the Storm to "return to the past".

Vertin then feels similar to Noah (thank you Return to 2009 au fic).

Both resolve themselves to fight for their lost future (both child soldiers) regardless of what the outcome may be, because in the end everyone has the right to decide their future and not have that taken away from them.

R1999 describing Arcana as almost an entity leads me to believe most definitely in some form will come back and that she embodies this fear of the future that cannot be easily defeated and put away, instead a force to overcome.

[kisuminight]

So what is c!Karl doing in this AU?

...Well, basically the same thing as in the canon 'verse.

~

~

~

So it's a bit more complicated then that. DreamXD is basically letting him do his time traveling thing, so he will write books about what he sees time traveling, so DreamXD can search for something that he lost a long time ago, using those books as a reference.

To further explain, we have to get into the basis of the Blade system's life cycle and a bit of ancient history!

So, at the beginning of the world, Blades hadn't really hit "population" yet. Population is roughly 1 Blade to 5 Players, even though not every Blade is in Resonance at any one time.

XC2 has Blades coming from Titans--but we don't have those here. YWKON does Blades growing on trees, which is very cool but there's a simpler solution. Blades spawn when a server is created.

Now, when the universe was young, you'd get maybe 5 - 10 Blades spawn per server. Now that the population has reached its optimum level, you will have a very small chance of 1 Blade being spawned per server creation.

And it's not like the core crystals are just showing up at spawn. If a Blade spawns with the server, the core crystal is somewhere completely random in the world. There is only one way to make sure that a Blade spawns with a server, and that is to offer the shards of a broken Blade when the server seed is being generated. It's a balance thing--offer a broken/dead Blade to guarantee the spawn of a new Blade. No matter how many shards you offer, it's always 1-1 for the spawn rate.

Now people don't go breaking core crystals for fun. A Blade that has been in circulation for a while has more Procedural Memory than a newly-spawned Blade. That means that they will automatically have more inbuilt skill with the powers that they have, even if the new Blade is going to be roughly the same power level.

This comes to the history lesson! A long time ago, there was a war involving the gods and their Aegis. This had 3 notable outcomes:

The Blood God straight up died. He is gone. The current "Blood God" is the original Blood God's Aegis Blade, who ripped their Driver's heart out of their corpse and used it to become the first Heartstealer.

If this hadn't been done they all would've died. The current Blood God has a fondness for Heartstealers because of it--see their relationship with c!Techno.

2. The Aegis of the Goddess of Death asked to have his memory erased in the aftermath. He wanted to see the world they worked so hard to save with his own eyes and explore it as a mortal. This is how we get the current c!Phil.

3. DreamXD's Aegis Blade sacrificed themselves to buy time. They used a literal spell called "Sacrifice," which heals everyone in the party to full heath and does massive damage to the entire enemy party. It also automatically kills the user. This isn't final for a Blade, which reverts to a core crystal, but one of the nearby enemies survived. And used the opening to shatter the core crystal and throw it away, to different servers. And DreamXD was left alone, with no Resonance.

Now, normally smashing a core crystal kills the Blade completely. And no matter how many shards you offer to how many servers, one Blade dead is one new Blade spawn. But Aegis Blades are special. Each of the pieces of the core crystal became a new Blade, with the same color of core crystal, same light element, same healer affinity, and same instinctive call to return to DreamXD's original server.

DreamXD wants his Aegis Blade back. His very first friend. Maybe then they can go back to the beginning, where everything was good and happy.

~

To get back to the point, DreamXD gave Karl his time traveling powers so he could use Karl's stories to track down the Blades made from the pieces of his Aegis when they were called back to the server.

Karl was chosen for this task partly because DreamXD picked up a bit of lingering energy on him, where he'd met and been around one or more of the Blades (c!Dream, Mamacita, Drista). Karl's adventures did lead to him locating Cornelius and claiming that Blade after Cornelius' apparent "death" in The Village that Went Mad.

The reason that Karl is having memory issues in this AU is that his brain just isn't built to process the time travel magic that he has. He is a non-Blade, who has been given access to Blade magic, without actually being in Resonance. Every time he time travels, the magic is using his memories to help build a frame of reference, and then the magic is putting them back incorrectly, because Karl's brain does not save memories the way a Blade's half-digital existence would.

As an example, Karl's mind is like a library. Every time the time travel powers activate, books are removed from the shelves. But without being a Blade or in Resonance with a Blade, the books are being put back wrong. Either they've been shelved wrong (emotions connecting to the wrong memories, thoughts triggering things that are unrelated) or they haven't been put back at all (there's empty spaces, in the bookshelves of Karl's mind). It's not that they're gone, it's just a mess. If he were a Blade, the memories would sort back automatically. If he were in Resonance with a Blade, then that would act as a "librarian" and slowly help get his mind back in order.

[tiny-cloud-of-flowers]

hi arii !! have u ever thought of xenoblade aus with ur other f/os? 🤔 i suddenly started imagining luna as a driver LOL but since uve been thinking abt xbc a bit more lately i wanted to ask since the concept is soo cool

Hello Clara!! Thank you so so much for sending this in, it really means a lot to me~

Ooh, I am not sure I have considered Driver Luna before, but I am now absolutely going to try to. Azami was my instant first thought for who she would resonate with, but that's more of an aesthetic thing. However, I also think Luna would work well with many healer Blades, though I can see her wielding Bitballs moreso than I can Knuckle Claws. (Which is perhaps ironic considering that there are no dark-element healer Rare Blades in XC2!) Did you have anyone else in mind from your sudden imagining (either in terms of who Luna would resonate with or perhaps how any other Reborn characters would be put in the game)?

Regarding Xenoblade Chronicles AUs with other F/Os, I have considered something like this in the past, but only for my selfship with Aqua, as far as I can remember. In that, the idea was less of an outright AU and more simply that Aqua and Aria had come to Alrest (hey, that's you) at some point after KH3, probably as part of their search for new potential Keyblade wielders in different worlds (partially because, while there's definitely scope for Heartless invasion, I'm struggling to think of how that would actually play out from like a game perspective). As part of their investigations, the two would pose as Blade and Driver, with Aqua pretending to be a Driver and Aria pretending to be her Blade, since - despite Gormotti being a thing here - Aria sort of has a few too many inhuman traits to properly pass as one, I think. Like the wings, and the seams, which may or may not be able to be mistaken for ether lines. She'd specifically be pretending to be a dark-element attacker Rare Blade of some kind, perhaps even being assumed to be Legendary considering the unique nature of her "Blade weapon" (which here would, I suppose, just be Aqua using whichever Keyblade she can summon that looks most like something Aria would have given her..?)

That is the only sort of AU-adjacent thing I can really think of having come up with beforehand, and even then it's more "XC in KH" than anything else. However, here are some other considerations, if you'd like them:

Calanthe and KOS-MOS getting thrown into XC1 instead of XC2 may not be overly feasible, but it's a concept and a half for a number of reasons. Like, imagine being Shulk and co. right after Citri and Fiora get captured at the start of the game - setting out to save them both and taking the fight to the Mechon, and then all of a sudden encountering someone who looks way too much like Citri and has a lot of her same interests (like tech!), alongside a potentially-mechanical? other woman who is incredibly powerful but whose abilities sometimes seem a bit too Mechon-like. Who are both apparently not from this world. And then starting to learn about Faced Mechon and their pilots. And then finding out that Citri and Fiora got turned into Face pilots. There's so much potential for an interesting up-and-down dynamic there, I feel!

My selfship with Zero feels like it could be pretty easily ported into XC2 with how Blades work there and how that can potentially be paralleled with voidsent pacts. You could either make Zero a Flesh Eater given her hybrid nature in FFXIV, or go down the route of her being a Blade that Zenos manages to steal and forcibly resonate with, then maybe Lorenza somehow restoring her memories to her after re-resonating with her? I feel like Lorenza could also fit well as a Blade, though, so hmm.. There are ideas there, but i'm not settled on either one yet.

I'm thinking about the recent Clio rambles.. I'm thinking about the whole "preserving her heart" aspect.. I'm thinking about how I literally described that as being able to take "the Sora route or the Jin route" (if you know then you know) and settled on something more like Sora's for KH.. I'm thinking about Aria taking the Jin route in XC2 and subsequently occupying a position like his in the story.. Yep, nope, that can fit, can't it

Both XC2 and DQIX have an Yggdrasil, and angel equivalents, and so on. I therefore really want to put Pavo and Ardea in here somehow. Maybe, Pavo and Aquila as the Aegis Blades (twin symbolism there would be fun), and then other Celestrians (so, including Ardea) as other Blades.. maybe Ardea becoming a Flesh Eater to represent her loss of wings and halo in DQIX? I feel like this could make Corvus Amalthus (he’s Aquila’s mentor, Amalthus is Malos’ Driver), but surely King Godwin would fit there better given how Indol is.. unless I say the Gittish Empire replace Torna..? Maybe Corvus would be better as the Malos equivalent (final boss and all), so maybe Pneuma could be Celestria - but then where do I put Pavo and Aquila, just ordinary other Blades like Ardea? Or would he be her Driver who then also pretends to be Ardea's despite her not needing one?? There is absolutely something here, I think, but I feel like I may be the only one with enough knowledge of both games to try and make it work. And I currently am not able to make it work, so.. take what you can make of my attempts, I suppose =P

It is now gone two o'clock in the morning and I have to be in the lab tomorrow (though thankfully not until the afternoon), so I should probably leave it there for now. Still, thank you very much for sending this in, friend, and I hope that these are alright as novel concepts ^-^

[elvenchain]

Once this wrist pain clears up I'm for sure gunna draw the remlits n then. Maybe xc2 au stuff for ghirahim and fi...i think they would have such sick designs as aegises and I wanna make that real