Aether paced around his room, nearly digging circles into the floor. Another au, falling into negativity. Golden steam fumed off of him in his frustration. Something wasn't right, it was so close to aus that he had visited recently. Several fell-type aus, they seemed especially glum. So like the good god he is, he went to spread positivity there. Going around doing good deeds for the monsters, and at night he entered their dreams and made them oh so happy! In the morning they were ecstatic, like they have never known a day of sadness in their life. Eyes yellow in glee, nothing could make them sad now. Nothing at all.

But now, in the middle of his positive aus was a dark stain that could begin to spread to his own. Over and over again he had to deal with this. When he went there,it was just about impossible to spread positivity to the monsters. They seemed near inconsolable. There was nothing he could do but wait for everything to be fixed on its own. That could take years, and now, it happened again. It was infuriating.

"Damn it! Why does this keep happening, there is no need for so much negativity. Yet here we are, with another stain on these perfectly happy aus." Aether shouted to himself. He found it better to speak things out to himself than to let it sit. Kept him more, positive.

"This isn't right, whoever is doing this just isn't right. Negativity is only needed in small amounts, hell I sometimes wonder if even that much is necessary. I mean look at how sad monsters can be, wouldn't it be nice to just rid them of all that sorrow?" Aether continued pacing, muttering to himself. "No, you know that wouldn't work. Need enough so that monsters don't go manic. You know full well how that would end. But still, I mean I'm fine and I don't feel any negativity! Nope, none at all!" 

Aether continued rambling and murmuring to himself like this for quite some time. Pacing around the room at increasing speed, golden steam beginning to pour out of his sockets. Occasionally things like "You know that's not necessary!" and " Imagine what it would be like if I did!" could be heard. It was as though he was talking to someone else, someone that didn't seem to be there.

Nobody was there to help filter his thoughts through, nobody was there to see him continue to spiral into his increasingly mad speech.

By the time Aether tired out, the whole room was filled with a gold fog. Thick and bright, Aether himself was practically glowing. His bones tinted a light yellow, and hot. His orange eyelights burning brightly. The fog was somewhat hard to breath in, in such large amounts. So Aether moved to open his windows as soon as he realized how much was actually in the room. Fog rolled out of each window, and evened out like a mist settling through the town the positive god had taken residence in. 

The mist began to envelope the town, it felt warm and comforting. Delightful to be in the presence of. The thick wall that once consumed Aethers room dissipated after a few minutes, finally the room was breathable again. Though a sickly sweet smell lingered, nearly staining the furniture with its scent. Not that Aether minded, he was used to and even rather fond of the smell. Perfect to fall asleep to, especially when no work was needed to be done here. Haventale and its copies were always wonderfully happy.

Abruptly, Aether strided over to the bed and threw himself onto it. Nearly instantly he fell asleep, his face looking more peaceful than it had all day. Losing the large grin that was seemingly glued to his skull. Soft snores floating through the room. 

~~~~~~~
As soon as Aether woke up, he was already bouncing across the room. One place to another almost at random. 

"Damn it, where did you put them? I don't know! This room is not small enough for them to be lost so easily." Aether was already back to talking to 'himself'.

Somehow, he had managed to misplace his clothes for today, he had forgotten to lay them out before he went to bed. Now he couldn't find them, having not put them in the same place as he usually did. 

"The closet, gotta check the closet. How have you not checked the closet yet? Of course they will be there, if nowhere else. It's obvious." Aether spoke at a lightning fast pace, still unclear of whether he is talking to himself or another. "There they are! Can't believe I forgot to do that last night."

Upon finding his clothes Aether began bouncing in place as he chose what to wear. Sort of, he always wore just about the same thing unless he was going to bed. Which he also forgot last night. 

Ignoring his mishaps of this morning and last night, Aether started wrapping light green ribbons around his arms. He proceeded to pull on his yellow tunic and a pair of black tights. Both were secured with a belt over the tunic, and a flame patterned cape coat was put on after. 

"Ok! Today, what am I doing today?" Aether questioned as he walked towards the front door. "Gotta talk to Hephaestus, we need to check on the stained au. Should do that soon, tomorrow probably? Yeah, yeah that sounds good! I think it was an underswap this time."

Skipping through the house, Aether reached the door and jumped onto the ground outside. Trotting his way through the town in the still early morning. Out into the forest where he summoned a portal to the doodlesphere.

Into the island filled expanse he called, "Hephaestus! I know you're here, come talk to me!"

~~~~~~~

Hephaestus was painting on a floating island when he heard Aether call him. He perked up, wondering what the ovexcited god needed. 

"Coming! What's up?" Hephaestus called back in a seemingly excited tone. Yet something lingering in his voice sounded monotonous and uninterested.

"It happened again, another au was tainted. I need you to come check it out with me, maybe we can get some information on it this time! Finally get to the bastard doing this." Aethers own tone jumped around. From sadness, to excitement, to anger. His expression following his voice. 

With a quick look at his scarf Hephaestus responded, " The thing with the negativity right? Where was it this time?"

"An underswap copy, maybe this time we could get something out of them." 

"Mmm ok then! I was going to meet up with a friend later. So maybe he can come with us?" Hephaestus responded in his strange cheery manner.

"That should be fine, just . . . make sure you don't go to the wrong place again? I am not looking for you again." Aether finished with a stern look.

"Yeah, yeah I'll do that. The friend's name is Cruz by the way. Very stiff, needs to loosen up a bit." 

"Well they sound fun." Aether said somewhat sarcastically, "We are going to underswap copy 13 by the way."

Hephaestus quickly scribbled down the au, in a jumble nearly on top of  some other older notes. Somewhat melding the two instructions together. "Done! Meet you there tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

With that, both gods parted ways. Back to their respective 'homes'. Or whatever came closest to that for them.