Tales from the Atmos

The Colonel’s latest treasure, the only ‘dragon pearl’ in existence, got caught in the crossfire of another skirmish between the Storm Hawks and the Talons. Unfortunately for Ravess, Cyclonis is all too happy to throw her to the furious mob boss as a ‘hostage’ while Cyclonia prepares an ‘adequate replacement’. Not trusting the Empress in the slightest, Ravess frantically tries to find ways to endear herself to the Colonel, playing her violin on his whims, wearing the dresses with feather motifs… she quietly seethes at the unspoken message that she’s nothing more than a songbird in a cage at another’s mercy.

Asking the tough questions today are we?

I wasn't really friends with many of them even as a teenager. Once it became clear that I was Cyclonian by birth, eight times out of ten my relationships went south.

I still talk to Suzy-Lu, we're on good terms for the most part despite everything. She's married and has a kid now, I'm happy for her.

Harrier was my mentor's best friend. If you've heard about the incident with the phoenix crystal then I'm sure you can guess how things are going between us.

I was somewhat acquainted with Carver, he was as much of a fratboy shithead back then as he is today. Training with him was horrible.

Starling is as avoidant of her real problems as she was when we were teenagers. I did feel a little bad for her when the Interceptors were killed, but I'm sure my sympathies would've been met with a boot to the head.

There's quite a few. The biggest one in both the capital and the Empire's core territories is the True Eclipse Festival. It's a celebration of magic and only happens during what we call a 'True Eclipse' when crystal magic is at its strongest. Cyclonia's best mages gather at the capital and host a tournament to showcase their skills, and attendants of the Raven Queen Academy are able to receive rewards for their research on crystal magic.

I don't participate in the magic showcases. Crystal magic has never been my strong suit, I can summon a twister with a wind stone and that's about it. But I'm expected to attend the awards ceremony with the Empress regardless. It's impressive what some of these people are capable of.

I don't like to do these 'callout'-style posts, but there's a potential scammer making the rounds in the Storm Hawks tag on AO3. They're on a brand new account and have commented on two of my fics (most notably Raptor Bite which is one of my longer ones), praising them and using some specific information before immediately jumping into "this would look great as a comic, contact me on Discord if you're interested".

They've also done this on one of @ashe-alter's fics that hasn't been updated in almost a year, and it's very unlikely this person has read ~20 chapters of fic in the span of 3 hours. If I had to guess they fed the fics into an AI LLM to get a synopsis and a comment template.

This is most likely a scam if not some sort of grift. I am not calling for a witchhunt of this person, if I hear anyone has done that I will block you. I do, however, encourage you to block this person on AO3 to stop them from interacting with your fics, and don't fall for this scam. If you see 'floridamike_01' on Discord, block them there too.

Canadian anime?? Excuse me, anime is NOT from Canada, that is specifically for animation from Japan.

Finn Log... one I guess? I'm still not sure about this but Piper said that all of us should keep logs. Although she said that if we became Sky Knights. Pretty certain the Sky Council said no.

Apparently no isn't in Aerrows vocabulary though cause we're going to Cyclonia... yay.

I guess I don't want to tell the others but I'm not sure about this? I mean I'm already on my backup Skimmer. My bruises have bruises and like Aerrow lost.

The Dark Ace could have killed him. Don't tell him this but I'm concerned how that didn't bother him. He could have died. That man has killed thousands of Sky Knights. Hes lucky he wasn't killed and I-

(A voice is barely heard just out of the range)

Yeah, yeah I'm coming. I'll be right out dude.

(Silence for a moment)

Technically I'm already in charge of most things until Master Cyclonis is old enough to not need a regent (because yes, I am her regent), but if 'anything goes', well,

I would sleep in for once. Set up a trade deal with Terra Malabar to get an endless supply of premium coffee. Hmm, what else?

Improve funding for the Talon Academies, see if reviving the Cyclonian Condor population is feasible (wishful thinking but maybe there's pocket populations beyond the Charted Atmos)… see if the dragon knights would like to expand their nesting territories down here…

Blizaris's tundras are the primary habitat of Glacial Lamche-Wyrms; giant serpentine creatures that dig massive tunnel networks in the earth and burst out to catch prey. They lay their eggs in the mountains and when those eggs hatch, Blizarians like to race them down the slopes…

While being chased down by avalanches.

I've met vampires before, though I've never knowingly fought one. No Sky Knight vampires, other Sky Knights would probably kill them first if the word got out. The Free Atmos is shockingly prejudiced towards such conditions...

In the hypothetical scenario that I did meet a vampire Sky Knight, the outcome really depends on the context. Are they willing to negotiate? Just how loyal are they to the Sky Knights as a whole? If we do end up fighting, I suppose the knowledge that my vampire-obsessed colleague Naius has imparted on me over the years will come in handy. I might die, but I'll do my best to take them down with me.

Translation (mod doesn't speak Spanish): I'm curious about Master Anarchis, what was her rule like and what was her working relationship like with the previous Empress Cyclonica?

The war was new when she took the throne; and when she had the opportunity to end it, she didn't. Now Cyclonia's reach is greater than it's been in a long time. Cyclonis wants to surpass her.

My working relationship with her was... fine. I never lived up to the legacy of my predecessors in her eyes, but that didn't matter. I did my job, she did hers. That's all anyone needs to know.

Welcome to the (resurrected) ask blog run by @far-side-skies / @hrhowling for the Dark Ace of Cyclonia! Originally started with the sole focus of an AU fanfiction where Aerrow was taken in by Dark Ace and became a Talon, this is now a more general ask and rp blog with occasional AU cameos (options for alternate Dark Ace muses may be added to this post later). Features a lot of lore headcanons and mat occasionally cameo guest characters from friends!

Interested in roleplay? Shoot a starter ask in with the emoji 🎭 Rp continuations may be moved to @far-side-skies-rp after a few responses so do not be alarmed if that blog picks up an rp.

Rules/Guidelines

English is the mod's preferred language. Google translate will only get me so far.

Suggestive/risqué asks are allowed but I reserve the right not to answer them. Outright smut/NSFW will be deleted, I'm not interested in writing that with strangers.

No shipping asks or rp starters without dm'ing me to discuss it first. I write DA as aroace so relationships are a complicated, but interesting, subject to write about.

I do not write shipping rps between Dark Ace or any minors, be they canon or oc. This should really be an unspoken rule, but this is the Internet so unfortunately I have to establish this.

Talk shit, get bit. Rude asks will be answered with the same energy both in and out of character.

Please be patient when waiting for asks or rp responses. I work full-time and have stuff going on outside of Tumblr. Sometimes I may go quiet every so often.

Posts tagged #queue-mulus are part of the queue and are scheduled to come out once a day at 12pm GMT. They are not an indicator of whether or not I am online.

Magic!anons (are they still called that?) with effects such as genderbending or truth serum are allowed! Though I will probably space them out if I get several at once.

Character Info

Name: Dark Ace

Age: 26-28

Identity: Aroace cis man

Alignment: Lawful Evil, or Whatever Gets Shit Done

Occupation: Talon General & Champion of Cyclonia

Birthplace: Terra Cyclonia

Hobbies & Interests: Cooking, Metalworking, Walking his Dog

His dog's name is Duchess

Decided to do one of those "draw your fav with your headcanons (left) vs as on model as possible (right)". Remembered how awful Dark Ace's hair is to draw lmao, and I think I made him look a fair bit older than he actually is. He's barely 30 in my headcanons, the stress of his job has prematurely aged him.

I also drew my vision of his younger self, a few months before vs after the betrayal. I put this kid through the wringer before he killed his friends.

He used to be a redhead.

And here we have the OG Storm Hawks! I haven't talked about my take on the old team on Tumblr in a while, but I'm excited to do more with them that doesn't involve betrayal and them all dying as teenagers.

You can see their original info 》here《. Most of it still holds up to this day.

This information isn't exhaustive, I have a bunch of other stuff going on with everyone in this AU but this is the starting information. More will be revealed as I go over more of the plot for this AU, and if you have a specific question you'd like answers to, just yeet it into my askbox and I'll do my best to answer it.

Lightning Atlas "Light" Strike

Age: 27

Position: Sky Knight & Squadron Captain

Apprentice: Finn Olor

Born to a long line of accomplished Sky Knights, Light is the poster boy of the Free Atmos. His rise to fame started early, he was pretty much born a celebrity after his father Vigil Strike's success and his older sister Valkyrie's decision to become something other than what their legacy dictated. He's brave, strong, and really knows how to work a crowd.

In a world where Lightning Strike and his team are still going strong, what becomes of their would-be successors? As fate would have it, they all find their way to each other eventually.

Aerrow

Nephew to Lightning Strike, Aerrow idolises his uncle and his team, dreaming of the day he gets to join them. Unfortunately, his dreams are delayed when instead of being made his uncle's squire for training, he's assigned to Carver instead.

While Carver keeps trying to weasel his way into getting dates with Aerrow's (extremely not interested) mum, Aerrow finds himself grappling with jealousy towards his friends being mentored by the Storm Hawks while he isn't, and drifting closer and closer to his uncle's copilot, "Ace", than Lightning himself.