#aether nikki

An opportunity to infodump about my boy? Sign me up!!

Aether Nikki is an AU/theory(?) of mine that’s been around for a bit over a year now I think, but over time with the introduction of cold war’s dark aether and further development on the story he’s strayed a little bit from his original backstory! He’s now mostly based off the theory that, with the soul of the Nikolai that would’ve been killed in gorod krovi but wasn’t (as botd takes place after ZnS) still hanging around in the dark aether, some sort of soul tampering went on (we know monty was there considering Sam has his scarf) and he’d actually the boy that was left to die and/or appearing in Sam’s dreams.

I don’t consider this particular likely (which is why it’s moreso of an AU) but I do think it’s something cool to think about and idk I just think souls + the kids (outside of Sam and Eddie) should be expanded on more. It’s just weird to think about the same soul (albeit in a different cycle) that was the main focus of the gift directors cut is there alongside Monty who tampered with it in the dark aether. There still is the question of why Monty would bother making him into a kid again but my general idea at the moment is some weird form or revenge for Nik being the one stoping the cycle. I don’t know why me made them into kids in bo3 anyways- so who knows why he does what he does.

Onto the actual boy himself, Nikki is, unsurprisingly, pretty mentally fucked from his existence in the aether. Plagued by faint memories of the trauma of his past lives, the fact he had to witness the men he had traveled with for years die (any would also come across their bodies in his child form) and with him being stuck in the dark aether fending for himself he is very distrusting of people, antsy are sure as hell tired. He does have aether powers along the same vein as Samantha’s but not nearly as powerful, with his manifesting in a kinda aquamarine colour being a combination of the blue of his eyes and green which I just... associate him with (maybe ult’s scarf and prim’s chest plate?) not too sure why but it is a digital opposite to purple and goes really nice with it so idk it’s here to stay!!

The memories of his past lives are super foggy and he usually can’t get much of anything from them, resulting in him not truly recognising really anyone and more just having a sense of ‘I know who you are but I don’t know how or why’. He would probably recognise and remember Samantha moreso than the others due to maybe meeting her after his soul was fucked with and she just hits different I guess.