Say hello to Horizontale!
The newest au! Horizon tale starts with the classic war between humans and monsters. Like many other aus before, the humans banded their best spellcasters together to lock away their enemies permanently. The intention of the humans was to throw the monsters "past the heavens" or thrust them into space like what happened with the outer aus. What happened instead was the curse travelling underneath the continents and targeting random patches of land. The earth became torn up; sections of random patches of land are now floating as islands in the sky. Parts of the ocean rises too, creating magical watery channels in midair. Of course, this crazy phenomena didn't stop the war. Humans and monsters continued to reign terror upon each other until the strain of surviving in the new climate became too much to ignore. Eventually a stalemate is reached where the monsters take dominion of the sky, and the humans ownership of the surface.
Many-many-many generations later, monsters and humans have both adapted to fit their new world. The humans develop technologies that allow their homes and farms to become mobile in order to escape any rising land or dodge the falling islands. The monsters evolve magically, developing an ability to slow and speed up their falls magically- a cruder version of outer monsters anti gravity magic. Tensions had cooled between the two species over time too. While monsters generally stay in the sky and humans on the ground, trade is common between the two.
The biggest changes to the world:
The world of horizontale was constantly moving, not just the islands in the sky. With how the land was "loosened" by chunks flying away, even the land below would constantly travel as massive islands floated around the sea. This made the climate unpredictable both in the air and below. One month you could be in a nice humid tropical section of the earth, and the next month you're caught in a blizzard.
Also the islands would regularly switch between land and sky. The curse that had meant to evict the monsters infected the deep bedrock below the land. The stone would "charge" then begin to float away when ready, and when all that energy is used up, it falls down again to crash into the ocean.
The fauna and animal life changed with their enviorment too. Animals became smaller and faster while plants became.... mobile. Flying ferns, crawling trees and stampeding bushes. The plant life seems to travel more than the land sometimes. And don't even talk about the seaweed. Nobody lived on the water for a reason.
Humans became experts at creating these walking tanklike homes. Massive metal structures that can act as greenhouses, boats and busses all in one. And monsters became experts in creating airships, smaller speedy structures in in the sky, perfect for hunting or gathering supplies before making a quick escape.
When the aus merged in ebott, floating islands containing the Horizontale monsters appeared above the country. The poor monsters were nervous wrecks for the first couple of years worrying that their islands would eventually fall down. For some reason though it never happened. Now that they finally have a taste of stability they've become very enthusiastic and adventurous people. The horizontale- or sky monsters as they're called by the others- have a reputation for being very hard to manage but great to party with lol. Big ride or die guys.
and now the boys!
Zeppelin-or zepp (Horizontale sans)
Zeppelin, or zepp (he prefers the shorter nickname. His family only called him zeppelin when he's in trouble) is a sky skeleton monster standing at 5'3 and aged 55. He has sky blue magic, a missing front tooth and very crooked teeth from previous injuries. He's currently wearing braces until his next set of teeth grows in (around 150 for skeleton monsters).
Zepp has that nervous manic energy that is common with all the other sky monsters. He always has this need to move and snoop around. He is generally a cheerful and silly guy. He's never cared about how people see him and will confidently be his true self in every situation, even if it's inconvenient. He is a big jokester and finds a lot of humor in the absurd. Things like making planes shaped as pigs for that phrase "when pigs fly" is a great example. He is very intelligent and creative and has made some true masterpieces when it comes to his airships. He hates waste when building and will utilize every tool and supply available even if it isn't the best quality.
Zepp is a part time "ferry captain" and is a full-time retriever. He has this uncanny talent for locating packages lost in the system or personal belongings that had been stolen or accidentally left behind in ebott. He has a 100% success rate and is very proud of his skills. On the side when he doesn't have a retriever gig, he will ferry tourists up to the sky islands in his rather... questionable airships.
Zepp's special ability is called mental image. He can get a very clear image of what someone is thinking through touching their hand. He uses this ability when first meeting a client, so he knows exactly what he's trying to track down.
Things he loves: urban exploring, exploring the underground, hiking, flying, robotics, robot dueling, the color golden yellow, weed, homemade cookies, first person shooters and open world video games, dandelions, country and folk music, hearing about tourists' travels, travel brochures, dumpster diving, building airships, spraypainting, his pet seagull named Florida man
Pilot (Horizontale papyrus)
Pilot is a sky skeleton monster standing at 6'7 and aged 51. He has ice/teal blue magic. His ribcage is slightly yellowed from constant smoking.
Pilot has that nervous manic energy that is common in most sky monsters. He had trouble adjusting to the slow peaceful life of ebott and still finds himself expecting the sky to literally fall. He is jumpy and a touch paranoid. While he is friendly to strangers, it takes a very long time for him to actually relax and open up to new people. He takes safety VERY seriously and will throw a fit if someone ignores basic common sense. His long rants about the stupidity of mankind are like his own form of therapy lol. Despite his nerves, pilot is a ride or die friend and will easily ignore his instincts if he thinks a loved one is in trouble.
Pilot has a beautiful blimp first designed by Zepp, then improved on by himself that he flies as a full-time ferry captain. Four days a week he spends all sunlight hours taking passengers back and forth between the floating islands and ebott city. The fifth day he gets absolutely baked to recover from dealing with the stress of life and the final two days of the week are dedicated to chores, obsessive blimp upkeep and his hobbies lol.
His special ability is called the danger meter, or his spidey sense by zeppelin. When pilot meets another magical being that is stronger than him, he gets an undetectable soul check to tell him what their LV is.
Things he loves: WEED, dog treats, nicotine, brownies, airships, leather acessories and clothing, watching the sunset, strategy video games, weightlifting, gymnastics, kickboxing, robot dueling, the color navy blue, durantas/sky flowers, anime- especially isekais, country and choir music
side characters:
Flappy: horizon catty, an absolutely nuts cat monster. Flappy is a twisterweed rancher and her herd constantly seems to get in the way of pilots ship rout. They get in weekly screaming matches over it. Also, she's his childhood best friend. Everyone thinks they're dating since they kissed once when they were little kids. stars people.
Ratty: horizon bratty, a VERY bold and brave crocodile monster. She is big in the robot dueling scene and has had a lot of success in the competitions with her creations. She is hopelessly in love with flappy but is convinced she is dating pilot.
BP: horizon burger pants, the bp is short for blimp pimp. His actual name is skye. The terrible nickname is a long story and is heavily blamed on zepp. BP is a twisterweed weaver, creating the cloth used in blimps, hot air ballons, zeppelins and other popular airship forms. He and zepp are childhood besties and love to make fun of the oblivious love triangle that is flappy pilot and ratty.
