architect

ten... fifteen... twenty years ago you had woken up without explanation in this hell, taking everyone that you had come to love with you

all of them, ghosts following your march after the First Smoke War that had taken away your whole world

you still think that the people to whom this City is home and were born within deserve life more than some "fan"

your brothers in arms had begged to differ

you tried telling them everything

you tried telling them nothing

you tried all paths you could think of

time flows like life. life flows like time

it never meant shit. just like all other souls you bowed before the irrefutable reality, because you were never strong enough to resist it for yourself. for your ragtag band of misfits

it became crueller to keep going on

not for you. for them

you stopped trying

below the earth's soil, you let them rot

every year you still bought them flowers. still repeated their names with the tongue who deserves to least of all the wretched souls. told them of all those stories you together had made and unmade

because for them you had to survive

because you were not allowed to not survive

and even were you, everything they had done since the suffering you had brought forth would be for nothing

even were the world kinder, you had to choose the harder decision to live

you had tried joining Lobotomy Corporation's Main Branch, because the Library would ensure that you had escape this shithole's claws even remotely

but surviving the Smoke War had been by the skin and bone of everyone else's teeth, and with recommendation to another branch instead, you said you'd consider it, and never answered again, because you were no diamond under pressure

packing the bags you had intended for District 12 and the main facility of, you poured your pockets into permanent residence in Hongyuan. cruel as it was now, it would have a kinder future leading it forth

one that might let you barely survive the Second Smoke War deathless

that was... hmmm... eight years ago now

now you were dragging your tired eyes across a newspaper going on about the Wing Director for D Corp. handing the mantle to their regent—not to step down, but to do vacate and return some day—sipping a cup of coffee meant to do the job, not taste good

for all that you had everything to learn about the City, you still kept tabs on how 'canon' was going, playing an insignificant enough role it that it ought to be unchanged

ping!

you set your coffee cup down. before you something for only your eyes to gleam

you refused to die, because it would script being confronted with that obsession again. you hoped that making it to old age would be the exception

you had never even asked it to appear your eyes again. tried to bury temptation

you going to ask it to fuck off and try getting drunk to stop yourself from giving in

but your eyes, your eyes ever attached to that little obsessive brain of yours...

they scanned the text

they scanned the text that never should have changed

[ System Notice! ]

[ Congratulations on Player for reaching the Twelfth Milestone! ]

you mouthed those words. twelfth. skipping a little ahead of yourself, loathed system...

[ Player has reached the beginning of 'Limbus Company' and has now unlocked their twelfth Save Slot! ]

you slammed your hands on your table and stood up, hypnotized by the continuing text

'unlocked save slot' meant that the one that you had gone all your years cursing for being your only salvation and your's only was the last of thirteen

your shoddy little dam holding the line against the spiral of despair finally broke, and you thought of everything that you had tried

telling everything

telling nothing of anything

the same thing readjusted

whole different things applied

starting conversations at the very beginning

experimenting between violence and negotiation

Save Scumming on just one File

and now you could hop between two timelines

you immediately opened your system to clear out your oldest Save File before your fingers paused before it

no

you needed a slot in the present day to have a place to recuperate and read up on knowledge now exclusive to you

this wasn't just Save Scumming

this was making the world your bitch with everybody else's achievements, stomping on them like stepping stones to get what you wanted

it was no longer being able to rewind the clock and failing to apply your metaknowledge. it was being in two places at once and being able to prod truly effectively for the answer

'twelfth save slot'

you were going to unlock eleven more save slots

you laughed honestly for the first time

you were so... so very happy that you were going to meet your brothers in arms again

no matter how many times you had to redo it

[ Enjoy your New Game+ ]

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

the Smoke War was supposed to be over

even Mother had said it

so why?

his brothers in arms march. his brothers in arms died. his brothers in arms are human flesh are his brothers in arms hated themselves

him more than any of them

he had thought it was all a bad dream at first, or even flashbacks, but dreams don't happen at just any time, forcing you in and out of awkward conversations and into the smog like the slaps to the face they always were

the way time jumped back and forth, he might even be happy for Mother to have an answer

but in his search for understanding, he found one particular unit... with a human at the center of them all

because at some point, in some skips of time, they weren't a human anymore, fighting with a group they loved more than their own life again and again and again and again

and it riled up every instinct inside of him

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

for Odysseus, the Odyssey has been over twenty years and counting

it undid its weave and remade as it saw fit, torturing her with the possibilities of endlessness

she changed what she could. whatever to try so futilely to turn this into her advantage

until she say that one soul playing at seargent that always changed, always made new decisions, always in the same of its groupie

it was no longer the world tormenting her; it was now her peace being denied before her eyes so that it could have it's happy ending with its most favorite toys

"oof!" it had the audacity to complain, bio-prosthetics twitching

"your men are in the next room over, and my own are quite the experts at torturing their lot" thanks to her extended years of service, of course "now get talking"

it glared at her, like a puppy trying to be intimidating

her chin remained up high

"you bitch..." the it made its best intimidation of a growl

"a 'bitch' is a funny thing to call someone you put in this war..."

it continued to sass. a trait she learned to be mainstay

"oh, whatever did little old me do to make you think that i am to blame for the First Smoke War?"

Odysseus eyes were now locked onto it

the Urban Phenomenon had realized it's error, and scraped their feet trying to back tread

"ho... ho... hold on a moment" but no matter

because Odysseus was meeting its eyes, moving oddly like imbued with body modifications, and—

Odysseus blinked at rapid pace

"Outis?"

"Yes?" Outis recalibrated herself, her new mission to figure out the date at which perfect ocular prosthetics or body modifications for the purpose of 'reading' were invented

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

it was a sick joke

it had to be some sick joke

because the City wasn't kind enough to give and take back—at every turn—the opportunity to have never killed his hometown

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

Rodion... Rodion couldn't change anything

so she did as always and indulged as she pleased

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

the smog sickens her

Ishmael tried all manner of methods

killing Ahab first, starting her own sailing crew, quitting her job early versus staying longer to stockpile her money

fuck, she had gone and joined the Middle for Queequeg, going against what had allowed for them to meet eachother

if only just one of them would stick already

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

Hong Lu accepted it as is

the world did not agree with him

hmmm... he was becoming curious himself

"Grandmother... can i ask about the Smoke War?"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

Heathcliff had bet it all in revenge being everything left

but this version of her... this version of her even said anything...

maybe he could have her love, and not lose her to Linton

it'd just... it'd just be a lot easier were the Smoke War not always looming on in the background, and the dream was always ripped away from him

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

the leader of the aberrant G Corp. Unit joined Nagel Und Hammer and other branches of N Corp., using rewinds time and time again to breach the barrier time should have been in climbing the corporate ladder

in these timelines, they did miracle work for N Corp.

in these timelines, they obtained information used to shred the feathers of the Wing he slid from in service to and exiled by

Meursault reported the Urban Phenomenon once their intentions became clear

the timeline he had made the reported never reappeared. neither did the rest

Meursault... would leave them ignorant the next time they joined

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

with a blank canvas restored, to repaint and undo

the original referenced again and again

always before her daughter was etched on

always after she had to be locked away

with the Index Nursefather's leash gone M.A.D., she wondered whether it could even happen again

if that bug settled the score with her baby E.R.A.S.E.D., there would be H.E.L.L. to pay

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

the pages of the past, present and future flirted closer than their numbers allowed for. this wasn't how adventures worked

besides, she now had plenty of redos to make her heroic acts shine brighter than the last, escaping from her tower for herself

just... don't let that oddity of time ever get close to her again...

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

Gesellschaft could no longer help her...

all progress always lost

Sinner №02... now... had only herself to get out of this predicament...

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

Yi Sangs submitted to the smoke occulating the flow of time

Gubo. the Nine. the Smoke War. now all the same

he opened his eyes to finally converse again with Sang Yi

he met another Mirror

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"excuse me!" you ran before the building—the employee walking to their place of work—before gasping for air because at the start you could barely do a marathon

the G Corp. scientists looking at you odd, especially with how wide you smiled

"are you still accepting recruits?"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

they buttoned up their shirt, and did their tie. someone of their station must always be punctual

that pest. that pest. once they were done with it—

Dante was...

Dante was...

...

what were they doing again...?

right. Mirror Dungeon

how long was it again? it should be just enough time for the Sinners to be rested

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

a/n: inspiration is the manhwa, Let's Make Saving a Habit

clarification

the Reader isekai'd with a System to Save and Load a single File, making them immortal, but for all that this power is OP, there's only so much some with that power can effectively do without proper training, knowledge, patience and etcetera.

however, once they reach certain criteria—the first criteria being that they reached the beginning of Limbus Company—they unlock a new Save File, with the maximum being thirteen total

here's what they learn the hard way about their New Game+, these Save Files are attached to each Sinner in the reverse order

the more Save Files they unlock and begin to use, the more Sinners are jerked between their Save Scumming

this opens up the idea of Gregor instead being aware of Save Scumming since the "First Playthrough," now that i think abt it. fun idea to consider using

y'know... given how the Sinners constantly have to refigure out which Save File they are in, assuming the Reader doesn't wipe it entirely (they can delete and override Save Files with different timelines after all) maybe someone in a consistent enough timeline says... "ur acting odd... time to extract some memories..."

cue the Pandora's Box

Dante's awareness unlocks at slot ten, but i kept the reveal for last because i could. they're wholly aware, but in timelines with their prosthetic, they forget everything due to it being "pre-game"

logically, Limbus Company would figure out they're all experience this timeloop as collateral, but as i explain below...

initial ideas

my muse didn't flow for this one, so it's much shorter

here's how i imagined it: the Reader unlocks their second save slot post-Smoke War, but this is before Limbus Company's Sinners are even recruited, so they think they only have themselves

lots of daydreaming of Odysseus slowly piecing things together from observation and interaction, a reveal or confrontation that has the Reader being like "oh fuck. oh shit, no matter where i go i am always having her on my heels"

because my muse didn't agree on this one, we never got to see the Sinners lose their minds and fixate on the culprit/'culprit' being the enviornment creating their insanity

thus, where Reader is a platonic/found family yandere for their bestie G Corp. Unit, the Sinners are yandere for the Reader as they realize the Urban Phenomenon in question has a level of responsibility in all of this

Reader had to Save Scum to get a good enough gacha roll for their bio-prosthetics A LOT. fun way to make the Gregor and any other Sinners go insane as the time loop seems to be the same period of time only for the rug to be pulled from under them

extra thoughts!

the Reader—and by extention the Sinners who time travel with them—interfere with the Index's Wills of the City, much like poisoning an LLM's database (think ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, etc.)

the way i see it, the "Gods" can make the City dance to it's strings because everybody in the world of Project Moon (well, Iori and the Wild Hunt exist) has grown up and existed in the same Mirror World their whole lives. ergo the "Gods" have all their data inputed

not the Reader. the same becomes true with the Sinners each load and save, so besides the butterflies they all cause themselves, even were they to somehow behave like the first save file, the Index would be unravelling from the poisoned data well

y'know, T Corp. probably has something to say about this

Reader doing their Save/Load shit in Warp Trains.... ohhhh i have no idea what fuckshit could go on but that would be fuuuun...

references

"time flows like life. life flows like time"[1]

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

01.01

no monster of the week, no arch nemesis, no big bad no nothing like the subgenre of mahou shoujo anime. only rampaging

"Galoree!"

"you can't catch me~♬! you can't catch me~♬!" your laughter shrieked through the night air, clothes billowing in the wind and leaps between buildings slow like leaves in the calmer breeze. Hah... this was the life...

okay, this was getting old now

"oh Eraze, be a dear~" you cooed, siccing your woodpecker mascot on your opp

you only laugh in schadenfreude cosplaying innocence to the cries of your pursuer

to everyone on your streets, you were an intruder threatening all. disrespecting the pecking order at every turn without real endeavor for your legacy, only safe because you weren't so great of an issue that Villains, Vigilantes and Heroes had to set their differences aside to defeat you

but you? this was about doing anything that you wanted to forever, and you wanted to skate, rollerblade, ice skate, parkour, be chased and do just about anything that got your blood flowing until your limbs gave up on you, ending your glory days

magical without any responsibilities

of course your call it magic, because what do you call the indescribable miracle of your own powers?

"hey Eraze" you floated down on the tree branch you spotted "Are you just about bored too?"

"oh, quite about... i'm peckish..."

"past-midnight snacks" you grin, baring your teeth. Overdramatic, and you deserve it for how awesome you are

"Gold Eraze!" you lift your hand high as you can, cackling as his form becomes golden light spiraling from your toes up to your fingertips "Endpoint of all Eternity!"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

opening — my long forgotten cloistered sleep[✿], yuki kajiura .

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

any other kid woulda panicked like all their save data got deleted with how long you slept in

you took our your phone, and woke up before twelve this time! 11:52! what a high score!

why did that matter again?

growl

oh yeah you gotta eat, those snacks can't fuel you forever

"Golden... Incandescence... c'mon we gotta eat..." you fought against yourself

"mmpf..."

you slept for just fiiiiive more minutes, you promise!

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

'ewww, you tried to sleep on time, how ew' you thought through that fucked up little head of yours

you finally sat up on your bed with Incandescence—that was too long, you're swithcing to their civillian nickname now—Candy flapping her wings in your locks and chirping to tell you she's had about enough

you yawned with all that was left in your body. dizzily, you sat down with the cereal you had half eaten the night before, milk after, like a civilized human being

shifting between long chews to enjoy your breakfast and short to defeat the timed event of sogginess, you placed your phone on the table to see the recent news

wow, that official Hero chasing you down got fuuuucked, you should've tried to watch it happen in real time. literally the reason you lived. to fuck everything up

yawning just before you could bite again, you scrolled reveling in the fruits of your domain, before opening up Limbus Company to finally complete that frickin' Canto

Candy flits across your table—long since turned to her hummingbird form—before flying atop your head to complete the routine

"i'm gonna beat it this time, i promise" you speak while chewing. rules are for hashtag losers

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

their Player was weird

it was a kinder statement than the reality

"hohkay, hohkay. lhemhe huss. hi'hih mhi... cereal real quick"

win rates ad nauseum gave Dante their intended authority. it was typical with how mentally unfit the Player always was in their first daily play

"i think uhhh... i think uhh, i give up. win rate"

and though they always came back—

"wait, how much longer is the sun out forrrr" they practically slurred "aughhhhhh! got to go now, bye!"

with that, the Player quit the game, leaving them to stew in the hell of monotony

—it wasn't going to do just letting things be this way

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

for all that you slept in and treasured it, you had to get your mandatory daily sunlight even more than your Limbus dailies to get your joyriding fix; plus it kept you and Candy from the consequences of your own actions biiig tiiime. it's why you're wardrobe is all short sleeves, socks, shorts and sneakers

before that however, you had to go through your hair and— not again!

"yo. Candy. weeds again" reporting for duty, her beak glows with warm magic to offset the pain of her pecking and tearing out the barely glowing, golden blooms on your scalp your hair

you weren't patient enough to skip an adrenaline rush to let the blood dry or even heal, so you just put some peroxide on it, and if anybody asked, you just said that you have a habit of self-harming and are trying to work on it

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

aaand done!

Incandescence flew around your head, celebrating in twitters as you bounced sat on the grass having beaten the final boss

sunlight pouring onto your skin and boosting your magic levels, you look up into the sun before remembering that regular humans would go blind, thus closes your eyes

ooooh, you're adventure this night is gonna be the best. who are you gonna fuck up this time?

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

fucking finally your sleeping habits fucked you all up

being shaken awake with a hand on your shoulder, your first thought was not that you got your home invaded, but that Gold Eraze had finally unlocked their gijinka form and wanted to surprise you with it

"Gold Eraze..." you mumbled, rubbing your eyes and sitting up "you little shit, that's not how you—!"

your eyes snapped themselves open, because no way in hell would Gold Eraze's gijinka form not match to your agreed aesthetic

you screamed, pointing at the cosplayer, backing up as far as you could

you've seen your fair share of villainous and even heroic cosplayers (online) but this was a sick joke of a bad dream all up in your head

Gold Eraze, ever the gentlebird, pecked at your intruder

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"so my game is alive? okay then" realistically this was unprecedented. you're world was nothing like the comics before supers, having only the bare minimum for the scene to exist, but you were a Magical They/It and you were half-awake. you rubbed your eyes again "you all vaccinated?"

"Faust has..." you tuned out the info dump, Candy nestled on your head, and you realized something seeing how crowded the place was

oh. oh hell no were you providing for any number of grown adults

once Faust finished up, you gave oooone olive branch of politeness

"you can all like... do basic labor or any other thing given you got into a magic school bus company at all, right?"

"correct" chimed Meursault

you turned to them, dead eyed, and with all the venom in your frame...

"get a fucking job"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"Galoree would have paid my rent already" you spat. these people were from the super dystopia, no way were they not about to say they have basic strength powers and sweep any interviews for physical labor

"oi, we're working on it!" Heathcliff had to say about your bitching. admittingly...

"hmmm, maybe i should be more gentler on you. im not familiar with this black marketing stuff..." you had taken advantage of refugee programs to get in your city. everyday you thanked the Villains so determined to ruin lives, they wiped proof that swaths of people existed at all

"Magical Girl Thrill Seeking Galoree Daze... the wildcard raging chaos across all parties with wild abandon?" ever the charmer, Don Quixote

"they get too much hype. they need to be knocked down a peg or two like the cops always get" you bitch, opening up your chip bag. not the answer that she wanted based on her squeaky toy kinning. Candy pecked at her to make it keep going

"Incandescence..." Outis repeated your only companion's name for some reason "it's a word used by the delinquent's showboating. given your financial frivolities, did you by any chance name that fowl after her?"

"obviously I named my bird after her!" you muffled through your chips before swallowing, and meeting her eyes with yours of citrine rock "she's the best!"

Magical Girl. Magical They

truth is—now that nobody was around to force any kind of gender on you—you've become comfortable enough with femininity to do it for your Magical Form, and you're civilian wardrobe was still comfort and function over fashion

you weren't a girl but whatever kept the Heroes (and now Limbus Company) off your back. yeah, you weren't the first super to try and use gender to hide your secret identity but you were a mean agender

Galoree Daze was ruthless about the pettiest things also! lot'sa people would be figuring that were 'she' not a girl at all, she'd have woken up a whole neighborhood about it. and at night!

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

Heathcliff picked up the closest cereal box in your cereal box stash

"they're all marshmallow brands..."

"you gotta convince me to eat my grains somehow" you took another spoonful of your bowl. Candy dived throgh the closed flaps, making the man startle as you heard her flap for a marshmellow

Outis opened your fridge. Candy flew out with her treat

"this is not meeting the nutritional needs of a soldier, nevermind a teenager"

"my powers keep us healthy" you tickled Candy's chest as she flapped down on your shoulder and nuzzled your cheeks

"you said you're a civillian-functional" Ishmael looked off into the distance, like it wasn't a good thing

"it still impacts me" your spoon clicked on your bowl at you ate "and for the better!"

you should have looked for Vergilius in hindsight

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

fuck you mean they were forcing you to eat your greens?

"you're just looking at the plate"

"i'm fucking trying!"

being parented... was the actual worst!

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"Faust has determined that along with a myriad of other mental debilitations—" joy "—that our ward suffers from Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, ARFID, due to sensory malsensory input and executive dysfunction"

"wait what is ARFID?" you took out your phone to google it, reading up the Wikipedia page "ohhhhh... that would explain a lot of everything" you smiled and giggled, like this was some laughing matter

unfotunately, your intervention didn't end at your eating habits

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"Stems and Leaves Blossoming as if by Magic..." you twirled a one-handed curtsy, the group surrounding you now having to deal with nasty stems and leaves glowing gold, and you leapt away bored with your food

spinning mid-leap, you looked at them crumbling or struggling, and stuck your tongue out. fucking losers

Golden Raze had some more fun before joining back with you

skipping towards the moon, you hummed a favorite tune with Gold Raze joining in

"i used~♩ to think~♩ it was not worth it~♩"

one would think that having named nearly all your spells after you favorite franchise, that Limbus Company would doubtlessly find your identity, even were you to have stopped using your whole skillset yesterday...

"that i~♩ just have to~♩ endure it~♩"

...but you?

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

ending — fake wings[✿], yuki kajiura .

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"—and she's a Project Moon fan like me! Looook! Looklooklooklooklooklook" you pressed your phone to the Sinner who had been unlucky enough to ask you about your Magical Form, Candy sitting on your victim's head

you weren't afraid of anything

you were your biggest fan and you had nothing to hide

shit like your grimoire for the emergency that you can't remember or are stil memorizing a spell? stored in the Pocket Watch that you obviously had custom ordered to look just like Galoree Daze's

Dante had said that they couldn't feel any kind of Golden Bough Distortion doohickery from other people's superpowers, so your magic and their powers just shared a color pallette

plus? you've been sneaking back home for years. and your apartment neighbors never found out about you

well, plain neighbors now. any apartment that you could afford was too crammed for the LCB, so you moved and said they were extended family and friends of, victim to the same purge of proof they ever existed

what were you saying? oh! yeah! they would never find out you're the same 'girl' you gushed about and slept surrounded by merchandise of

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you spot a flash of fabric in the midst of a spin one joyride. you spot it again and it's coincidence, not a chance trick on your eyes. you don't wait for a pattern

it's child's play to enchance your eyes with years of trial and error experience

'Dante, you're a fucking idiot' you think. you had told them all about Limbus Company's every secret being publically available. it's why you pushed them so hard to become 'civillians'

it doesn't matter how slick they think they are, the internet is the eyes of the Head for the love of them game. in the best case scenario, the Sinners are going to be spotted and assumed nerds, assuming they're smart enough to exclusively use a singular identity

in the worst...

you're really hoping that the internet (and the supers) suspects the former. you really need to tell everyone off for thinking this was okay

and to think not even your midnight runs were safe from them now...

"Eraze..." you lamented "we gotta make some new spells to whack on 'em" let's think... tracking, communications, anything that would come from an addict of their gacha game...

oh yeah, you should knock 'em down a peg too. Galoree Daze didn't hide their obsession at all

"Eraze~" your purred, one only best friend flying in excitement of some new action "let's have so much fun with this fellow fan of ours..."

you leapt high into the air towards the Sinners, and at the top of your lungs...

"LIMBUS COMPANY???!!!"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

the next day... everyone was grumpier

"did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?"

everyone grumbled or reassured you that is was nothing. like you hadn't harassed one of their own learning the hard way just how powerful one by themselves is and was now waiting for an excuse to admonish them for their midnight stint with your emotions totally being because you were a fan of their new opp

bruh

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

most of the Sinners got proper employment, but considering the threat of supers, you had to get a designated babysitter. ugh

thus one of them had joined in on your job that kept CPS off your back for being a teenager and the IRS with how you laundered your dirty money for something cleaner

Thrill Seeking Galoree Daze Fanclub dot net

you snuck into a looot of places, be their owners civillian or super, and you found a lot of prizes, including business tricks! and not just the criminal kind

so you set up a site, and just like that you were your own boss squared!

profiting of a super's likeness was legally risky because the DATV could sue, or Villains could make a scene about it, the whole nine yards other RPF Fandoms never had to fear, but you were a safe bet, and you had proven it with how many years you ran this show

hell, Galoree Daze would deliver 'get well soon' gifts to anyone announcing a haitus due to unfortunate circumstances and there were recordings of the golden butterflies opening those packages for their recievers the on the net. you had posted your own after that total freak accident that you suffered, and you had hardly given any details!

you were a grateful Magical Rogue; one terminally online enough by day to spoil your most precious fandom the few times you could spare

merchandising, fanfic, fanart, animatics; you bought, ate up and created all that you could, making bank and reinvesting into the publishing house you had practically made of yourself

ding!

oh! your lifesized Galoree Daze plushy is ready to ship home! fufufu~

you sensed someone behind you, and turned to give a shit eating grin at the Sinner watching you order it to your new address

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"The third light illuminates; your mind clears and your wounds close..." your magic depleted itself, golden glow creeping past the edges they restored and ending off with orbs of light floating up, your and panic vanishing to the wayside

that was... in all your years... this year!... that was too close for comfort

you rub where the deepest wound was, hissing in memory of how only seconds ago, it was gushing enough to kill a hypothetical Mirror Identity that really was civillian-fuctional

you'd have to give that Sinner a gift next night meeting after they intervened (even though you and the Sinners were still eachother's rogues past curfew). ugh, you hated being in people's depth

and worse, the memories you intended to make tonight were being interfered with

"Erazeeee..." you almost cry let him know "we gotta party up out here reaaal good to make up for that"

"this trip" your teeth gritted with your smile "is going to be on the news"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you stumbled towards the backdoor of your home with Eraze also dazed (haha), silencing and all other magical charms to make your return seemless in perfect order from what you could sense

"Golden Eraze...?" you'll admit your slurred "Thus Ends Our Glory..."

you hear your Pocket WIatch rewind a full twelve hours, feeling the magic molt away like liquid feathers as you made the gold of your hair and eyes flicker out

you cracked your neck, door on the knob, slipping and already feeling your bed waiting to reuinite on the second floor

feeling your steps to the middle of the

flick

"whuddafuck!" you flinched at the kitchen lights turning on and turned to where the lightswitch was by the door you just came through

you saw Outis shifting from being by the the switch to crossing her arms and standing in front of the fucking door

and your were also noticing all of the other Sinners

shit, you had enchanted your eyes on habit to skip ahead of adjusting to the abrupt change in lighting. you're hair was doubtlessly flickering in sync—

oh, and did you mention the fact that you were still mid-detransformation? semi-solid goop was dripping down on the floor, and usually it wasn't such a big problem given the fact that it dissolved into literal nothingness or light that floated away BECAUSE IT WASN'T OUTING YOU!!!

"that's what we oughta be asking you, ya little shit" Heathcliff, fuck you

"Gold Eraze" you positioned yourself, magic surging to force wakefulness, putting your arms out and hands open "get ready to—!"

"could you escape?"

you paused

was 'escape' courting death? no, but you don't quite think that even with twelve hours of sunlight, you could take that many Sinners (and Vergilius) as is. you've seen them in combat for real this time. you've tried roughed them up after losing your element of surprise that dwindled every night. you've seen how they had to save you this time around even though you were certain that they hated your alter-ego

and Eraze... you've bled worse than her, and that never made it any less horrific to see his blood—however altered by magic it may be—gush out

you dying? you accepted the risks. Eraze?

your hands became tightened fists, fists you forced down as can be, before gritting your teeth

"Eraze... there's no winning this..."

"what? but... but...!" your best friend protest, but for her own sake you had to back down from this suicide mission it would be

"fuck do you want?"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you slouched down on the couch lulled by both the blanket and the long sip of the hot chocolate you were given

"so..." you got your vocal chords in working order

a hand sat you back up straight, making you 'eeeehh!'

blinking, you looked forwards, Eraze on your shoulder grounding you

"so you're saying that just because my powers are gold means i got them from something only meant to exist in your world?" you weren't telling them that you hadn't a clue of the source source of your magic

"incorrect. Dante has the ability to detect Golden Boughs, immediately noticing your own. with your nightly outings preceding our arrival, it is not only imperative for Limbus Company to retrieve you, but to discover how the Bough landed in this world"

and the Sinners hid this from you the whole fucking time?

fuck you clock, why did you have to become smart?

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you clicked your tongue, before beginning "it is in my best interest to reveal all that i understand about my powers and..."

you tried not to look at Eraze

"and since i want to... be as peaceful as possible about this—twelve to one after all—i gotta tell you everything"

"Faust would like as much data as can be presented on the nature of your abilities"

you shut your eyes and hissed, before opening them again

"alright" you crossed your arms, chocolate mug long finished "lemme try this whole monologuing thing"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

the truth is that you were someone else a long time ago

no secret identity, no powers, no Gold Eraze, no apartment, no nothing

you were a kid and you were an aspiring supervillain's lab assistant

maybe were you loyal you could have stayed by his side

but instead you stole the vial intended for himself and just like that, you got the superpowers that came paired with Gold Eraze

you completely abandoned and forgot about your old life, letting all memory of it wither away

you skipped town and you became Thrill Seeking Galoree Daze; the Magical Rogue terrorizing your true first plunge into the super scene

but the fact that your powers are from a Golden Bough? it means that your boss somehow got access to one before Limbus Company came into your life

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"another man you say?"

that looks to have gotten them off your back! you're a genius. you're boss is waaaay more concerning than some kid, especially with the matter of the Golden Bough!

mentally, you were smug and crossing your arms—

"we'll have to track him down, or at least his lab"

you froze, as did Eraze

"um... am i included?"

"yes"

"aw shit..."

you were out of ideas

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"we can't go! no no no! we simply cannot go!" Eraze tangles your hair and pecked (without pain)—trying desperately to convince you to betray again and try to escape—reverting to how you both behaved at the start of your glory days. harrassment against the LCB being a failure, he tried for one last shot

"i don't want you to die Eraze..." you kissed her head, sitting him back on your shoulders and continued to pack your bags

damn are you going to miss your merch... at least you any amount into your luggage at all

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you were thiiis close to biting at your phone and cracking the screen, hospitalization and dentist bill be damned

still, the taxi trudged along, and you had two Sinners by your sides. pulling shit isn't exactly in the card right here

Eraze clung to you

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

it was only transformed, standing straight as Galoree always did against the nightly air that you now looked at your childhood city from up above instead of it's walkways you had returned to

you turned to the Sinners

"welcome to uh... my origin story city..." you laugh. real hollow

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

02.01

"do you have any clue what to expect?"

"i 'unno" you confessed "i never looked up the place or anyone or anything even remotedly related to my old boss after skipping town. i didn't want to leave a digital footprint after all"

Eraze flitted around as though on the lookout. you can see why. anybody recognizing you would be a disaster, especially your old boss

"then what do you remember?"

you closed your eyes, sighing, before setting out to remember those days you thought left gone by for certain

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

before you had ever met paths, your boss had been a Hero all on his own. his only affiliation with the Department Against Villainy was team-ups and after the action. maybe PR events he was invited to

maybe had you researched, you'd find out why, but one day the very Heroes he worked with called for his arrest, and his classification had gone down to Villainous

he threw away his identity he had been building up for years since thirteen or twelve

you think he came to you because he thought you were easy to manipulate

you don't remember why you did it in the first place

you guess he was right

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

opening — aura[✿], yuki kajiura .

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you were his lab assistant, or at least did all the work he trusted someone the age of a twerp (in his own words) to do. a lot goes into making those power vials, and you have to make more when they're temporary

he needed to get his first sets done as fast as possible. the Heroes were on the lookout for him, even after finding his costume in some desperate attempt to fake his death

you kept going. not for money—he was on the run and relying on vials to keep his own body from crawling towards death—but because he promised you superpowers for your loyalty

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you didn't get to spot any clue on just what he was working on. you had to 'prove yourself' loyal to his cause. that was obvious enough to guess

you had no powers. it's what made it perfectly safe for you to be doing whatever blue collar shit you got hired to do in the same room he was working in

you were still curious to the vials that he created, and how one was treated so delicately above the rest

you remembered the motif of gold

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

one of your duties was to be the security system

you couldn't do it all the time, being the only employed worker here, but you had to make sure to keep watch on those hours even as some... people... just some people approached you. they always left

in case shit hit the fan, your job was to retreat with a briefcase of your boss' most important vials. you would rendezvous wherever. your boss would be set back but with a briefcase long fully stocked; well, up until one square hole in the packaging, making room for extra protection that one one vial had been given

there was the one vial that you couldn't handle. the one vial that you could not touch unless you punched in the code on the second hidden panel to open the safe since revealed to you. in there would be another box storing that vial you stopped seeing in the main lab

in the scenario that you did press the emergency 'vial that i don't touch' button? your boss told you that the site would be rigged to blow just from opening the panel—not even getting a code in—and even had you practice drills in order to train you for retreat without dying and taking his powers with you

because maybe there would come a day where the Heroes came knocking, where you're boss just wasn't ready yet, and you had to race against the clock, or you were an accomplice to a Villain; dead or alive

you remember hoping that it would happen, because you'd get to use the vials that your boss had handed to you for this specific scenario, and have superpowers for the first time ever

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you remember that one day, he said to himself that he had successfully extracted his own powers. he had successfully extracted his own powers, and once he completed the formula to meld his powers with what you now understood to be his most prized ingredient, he would begin his revenge against the Heroes

(not even being civillian-functional, he could return to his own life, concoct a lie about being kidnapped or whatever, and never look back)

(assuming he had the skill to not get identified and arrested)

(you dunno. you were a kid)

it was a mad gamble, because he quite literally only had one shot

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

powers had a way of making people immortal

not because it was literal, but because they seemed more untouchable. marketing and news cycles in hindsight

your boss was still a former hero that had escapes the Heroes. your boss was still an up-and-coming supervillain planning his debut. your boss was still making superpowers in a crusty abandoned building. your boss understood his vials and you had only been given instructions on how and when to use them

he had said that he extracted his powers

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

he had to do something

you had gotten good at learning how long he would take to do these somethings

it's funny. you felt this way after you got your powers, and got really good at using them

but maybe for the same reason you joined your boss, you left him

haha... you didn't just leave him

hands and heart shaking and giddy, you opened the safe and fumbled the smaller box into your hands

oh your boss had resources. he had resources but they were miracles given he hadn't been making any money whatsoever. he was relying on your allowance and the side-hustle you had reselling cheap candies that you had bought

you're saying that only the safe had a lock

you quit your job then and there; walking out and throwing the container onto the streets, drinking your won superpower all in one go

what did you think of your old workplace blowing up? awesome

your body rewritten anew, you did the same for your life and completely left your living situation. all you needed was yourself and Gold Eraze

thus began your glory days

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

a bit fast, to be honest but like...

"i don't quite remember anything else. anything that isn't useless details to be honest"

"...are you completely sure that there is nothing?"

"no... all we can do now is check on..."

you looked straight ahead

"what the fuck?"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"what the fuck?" you repeated, tearing through the newspapers "what the fuck? what the fuck? what the fuck? what the fuck?!"

you had noticed smoke trails and wreckage, but that was whatever. this was a superhero world after all

turns out you had arrived just in time to the beginning of your childhood city's entry for the history books to reach it's crescendo

turf wars worse than the typical, horrific debuts, natural disasters of supers or their makes coming to tour, live executions on tv, all manner of things that this city didn't deal with

you looked to the nearby restraunt, it's television still working and... that was the city's building for the DATV up in flames

...you had noticed smoke trails and wreckage...whatever. this was a superhero world after all...

you ran in there, followed by the Sinners as you stared up at the newscaster

"...following his whistleblowing" that was your old boss. your old boss was secure enough in his hold over your to not mask up around you "villains and villainous vigilantes alike soon attached the DATV, leading to some suspecting less than pure intentions for his motivations..."

the noise went in your ears, but you were still fixated on that first detail

he had joined the DATV? he had to, because how else would he have gotten information to provide for anybody else seeking to destroy the local team?

that... that didn't make any sense! he was like an angry drunk without the drunkness. he had gone on about how he was betrayed and would take revenge against them all! he wouldn't do that!

he was only ever your boss

you needed to see this for yourself

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

leaping between buildings, the smoke began to be something you could smell, something that could warp between your fingers

you stopped at the edge of a building alright as can be. all the others in front of you... the DATV especially...

sirens all around you, screams and tears, the skies bloodied red

oh you've seen blood. you've bled a lot yourself

the dead bodies at this high of a frequency everywhere as people and costumed supers...

only Eraze's near death made you feel this horrible

all because one man's sense of revenge had undone everything left to hold the line

"oh..." you realize "i did that..."

you stumble back, someone grabs your arms from behind and you let your legs go slack "get a hold of yourself"

you stumbled over your words "that man on screen was my boss. he showed his face to me because his costume was still in the works. my boss did that. he got all of these people killed"

it continues to click "he joined because he couldn't have his perfect power. my power— the one i took from him. so he did the next best thing and—"

"you didn't do anything"

"that isn't reassuring" you tried to get your legs back up

"you did everything right" Gold Raze flies in front of you

"not right enough for this shitfest to not happen. oh my god..."

turf wars worse than the typical

horrific debuts

natural disasters of supers or their makes coming to tour

live executions on tv

your boss' whistleblowing

you, turning to the Sinners "where is the cemetary?"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you surged through the fog, crumbling roofs disintegrating under your own rapid steps, civillians scrambling under you, and Limbus Company at your heel

your used up hour by hour, prolongued days in the sun spent up by the moment to stay at first place, to keep your body functioning and your senses able to do jack shit

you had read the words, but you hadn't actually registered the fact that dead people left dead bodies

and that dead bodies left marks on their cities

spotting the ravaged field of green and tombstones, you hopped from the edge of the building to a float down on the unused road

"Faust does not advice that you—!" a Sinner grabbed your arm

"yeah, yeah! your 'grief for thee but not for me'!" you wrestled your arm out. you played the game. they could mourn their loves ones all they want and their bus still ate people

"Galoree, don't!" Eraze flapped in your way, panic at the sight of out of character for her

you loved him; he was your best friend forever, but you were damn near this close to swatting them away with the last of your magic—powers, or Cogito as the LCB called it, what-fucking-ever—you side-stepped him marching into the gravesite

"you're my only friend Eraze..." you face was fixated on your location "i'm really not going to be hurt so badly by this..."

that was... a lot of dead bodies

no matter how they skewed from intact to upheaved, you saw so many burials and bodies, but you wouldn't be able to tell how much worse it got for everyone since you left

you've never been here before

as you took petite step by step, looking aimlessly, something caught your attention

something that touched at your sixth sense of Cogito caught your attention

"what is it now?" you registered from Eraze, but something else Cogito really mattered

something you had become curious of since learning your powers came from a Bough was how much you could replicate Dante's own

you had tried for reaching out your magic to feel Dante's, unwittingly alerting them of your experimenation

where Dante's head was built for precise procedures, you had to start from scratch, experimenation and failure in order to accomplish anything

as it turns out, Cogito is a lot easier to learn about with someone experienced helping you along

"hold on..."

you walked at too calm of a pace

"nononono..."

forwards

"stop it...!"

forwards

"stop it immediately!" peck

forwards to...

"i'm begging you to stop!" peck. peck. peck. peck...

you got on your knees, grass stains and soil dirtying your socks. hands bled without magic casted to heal at the scratches and drips of blood. gold only came to your commands to reach deeper into the dirt

blood dripped down your face. you enhanced your eyes to see past it

you were forced to correct you head as it was jerked back and forth from the tugging of your hair

the casket splitterned and slipped under your bloodied hands. into your skin and flesh and into the scraps you reduced the lid to, sitting down on the half you hadn't

"that's a dead kid..."

he was rotting

somebody had desecrated his face

all the bones in the way of his brainmatter had gone away

you heard the ticks of your Pocket Watch chiming in reverse towards zero. surely soon, you're transformation would end without magic, and for the first time ever, you'd feel the affects of your lifestyle without the protection from your own body

"don't look at me!"

you're head snapped up to Eraze

"but you're a bird..." you hadn't been able to force the addition of how for all you two entertained a gijinka form you could never make happen. not with how ill you felt seeing a child's corpse so close and personally

"don't..." he sounded like he was about to cry. weird

weird

neither of you had no loved ones...

both of you only had eachother...

and you didn't want to step away from the answers you had been seeking so soon...

whatever the question even is

you brought your fingers to the edges of what remained for the skull around the eyes... moving your body... peering your eyes closer... you saw the puddle of something that made you think of the car oil you loves to splash in at night and shriek, rainbow colors alluring you...

making his little brain matter left swim in his skull, was the gold of the Magic—Cogito—and something it just didn't mix with, like oil and water

the color of Eraze's blood

your magic ticked towards zero

you know... now that you think about it... there's this little lock at the back of your mind

your magic is on it's last legs

hmmm... is it related to this city?

there's an alarm that you two set up, that you have never heard until now, like the sounds of a toaster ticking before it's chime...

you reached out for it...

you reached what little magic you had left out to the Cogito and it's fluid

it opened

your Pocket Watch ticked backwards upon Twelve... and backwards and back and backandbackcbackandbackandbackandbackandbackandbackandbackandbackandback

opening.5 — aura[✿], yuki kajiura .

"work for me..." ████ ████ ████████ ██████ shook you by your shoulders "...you'll get revenge"

you looked up at him, vision blurry through your teary eyes, and filth cleaned off of your mouth by the man, using what little clean cloth that he had

you began your barest brush with Villainy the age his Heroic debut

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you sorted half-filled vials between those for later and failed, you boss already working on the next test batch on the main table

one would think that he would be more controlling of whatever is seen following a so-called betrayal

civilians were just not something that he feared

you were studying now. too many supers got cocky and died to the most mundane of things

'Project: Golden Age?' you had entertained asking to make him monologue more

one should think after aspiring to be a Hero for years, that being labeled a Villain and proving the 'traitors' right meant that meant your Golden Age was done with

'but the glory days are a blink-and-you'll-miss-it. the golden age is written in history' you had heard him say to himself

"compression complete" you were never allowed to see what his golden ticket was. you only spotted the glimmers of its light in the larger-than-life room he had under look and key, like destroying it would destroy him

████ ████ ████████ ██████ raised a vial up, and something grand was now a bright, golden glow inside such a handheld thing, it's mere presence making him beam

now it looks like you would never see what it used to be

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"hi..." you turned your head towards whoever approached you during your lookout hours

you recognized this Sidekick. they were a relatively new addition to the Department Against Villainy

weird, didn't the DATV never figure out or care about the whole thing? no agents ever visited where you lived

"can I help you?" you raised as eyebrow

"i wanted to check in on whether you were okay..."

"and not PR?" you spat out. right after you thought about how it could be used to incriminate your boss, being a Villain he would have motivations to turn you against them

you didn't care for that

the Sidekick shrank in on herself "n... no, they... they have no idea that i'm here..."

you'v seen your fair share of newscasters lambasting Sidekicks for their fuck ups. she was NEW new

"can i just... sit by you? instead of giving a wellfare check?"

uh, fuck it. whatever answer made her shut up

you rolled your eyes "sure, take your pick"

she sat next to you on the sidewalk, knees tucked up

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you cleaned at dust and grime, your boss—"power extraction complete, vial now ready"—speaking to himself

you froze. both of your backs were turned to eachother

you started cleaning again, a slower pace you would cite being out of concerned with a creak you'd swear to have heard

████ ████ ████████ ██████'s vials did not come from extraction, they came from mixing together all the right parts

nobody else was with you two in this building

'power extraction' rang in your ears

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

the Sidekick didn't look you in the eyes "they learned long after the damage control... i only overheard some conversations so i don't have the full details..."

you both sat there, the girl besides you doing everything in her social inepitude to give you therapy

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

he didn't use his powers anymore

people did not imagine how superpowers impacted their users lives besides being in the costume, how they lived day to day life without outing themselves and how they would lose a piece of themselves even had they lived only as civillians

even your boss—pridefully foolish as can be—had to live with this reality

he used his power in many ways in the lab, and it helped to progress vial production

you read about how many retirees of super scene who became civillian-functional or lost their powers—particularly those abled-bodied in just about everything—said they felt disabled, even though a lack of superpowers didn't impact one life like disibilities

you wondered whether he feels such a way

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you weren't a psychologist

you had only just met the guy

you were gambling on him turning his own power into a much more temporary vial hinging on the golden vial—the one vial he never let you handle, now along with the one that has to contain his power—being something so insane, that it changed everything

"in the worst case scenario the escape route is—repeat after me..."

your fingers began to twitch everytime you saw that golden glow

the only permission that you would need is the Heroes to come knocking

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"hey there kid!"

you looked up where you were knocking around trinkets with a big stick

you were being ungrateful about the Sidekick, because now you have to deal with two actual official Heroes now. yuck

"nice day, what are you doing out here?" the man asked

they were absolutely here because of him

"i was told to get some sunlight and not use technology" you lied "said it's good for me"

"in the middle of nowhere?" same Hero

"it helps my thoughts"

"ohhh, yeah she said that you think a lot, you know..." the woman mentioned the Sidekick's name, and too many details of your meeting together for comfort

'that future-Hero bitch ratted you out, huh?' it was probably cruel. you dunno. how easy was it to be a kid working for the government?

finally they stopped beating around the bush, but wow, they really had no idea how terrifying this was for you, did they?

'was the Sidekick their niece? nah, she wasn't nearly as creepy about it as these two'

"...but we agree" you were brought out of your thoughts "we should have checked in on you much sooner"

you're surprised that the man didn't add in a 'she was a true Hero'

you would have tuned the conversation out, but they'd probably bother you more about it since they would notice. they're given some training for this shit. you paid attention just enough to get them off your back

"it must have been so terrifying, wasn't it? to only be a girl and go through that..."

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

your ████ ████████ ██████ had been there, because it would never have happened without him or the Heroes he was involved with

because he was betrayed

he never let you forget that

not on purpose of course. he never stopped monologuing

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

he trusts you be in the same building as his golden ticket without him

would he even had approached you were you civillian-functional?

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

████ best friend██ ██████ had been like... twelve or thirteen debutting as a solo Hero. the age you were once he noticed you. like fate

he fought villains, tackled hostage situations, ran into flaming buildings, and teamed-up with official Heroes, all the things expected of Heroes that wasn't mundane like saving cats from trees

you think he never joined the DATV, because it would mean having once been a Sidekick, and never always his own man. not that he got to stay his own man, now did he?

speaking of which, you read back on that day now instead of dwelling in your memories. though the details were much the same as your boss' recount

one day, after another day playing Hero, the officials ones from the Department Against Villainy came over to arrest him and he had more to share on it than his mind

he says he was betrayed, and that so long as you served him, you would both have your revenge

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"i..." you hinged on trauma screwing people's brains up to get these Heroes away from you "i still need time to myself. i need it because my head is a mess"

"i still need time to myself..."

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

here's what everybody notices

there is the right and the wrong answer to everything

including your own personal experiences

did you not experience the correct emotion?

thankfully for you, you had nobody

you held his hand

you don't remember your expression

you held his hand as he cried, begging for anybody

you didn't shed a tear

you held his hand as he bled our, gored by the debris

the time just ticked on by and it ticked on by

he stopped

blood stopped gurgling out of his mouth

you pressed a hand on what was left of his own chest

no breathing

you check his pulse

no beating

your best friend forever was dead

you bent over

acid, soft chunks and fluids fled from your own insides, from your mouth

how long did it last again?

acid, soft chunks and fluids fled from your own insides, from your mouth

for once you didn't beg it to stop

acid, soft chunks and fluids fled from your own insides, from your mouth

you had just watched him die

acid... forced you to cough again...

you didn't even comfort him in his final moments

putrid stench assaulted your nose with the metals of blood

what were his final words anyway?

you heaved, coughing, breathing with your mouth

you opened your eyes and could now bargian to guess the extra work that would have to be done to bury him

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

they finally left you

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you stopped waiting for permission

heart a'racing, lungs a'flutter, all giddy, you punched in the safe code

you snatched the lockless little box. you drank your GTFO vials of invisibility, speed and sense enhancement

you took the emergency exit case for extra measure, and walking out with your superpowers you watered the unneeded vials on some tree

you felt the ground shake and wondered whether there was an earthquake, before remembering "oh yeah, the bombs" and looked from where you came

'beautiful' you though amongst the screams, the sirens and the panic

you could see—feel—the fucker's waste of efforts and time reach it's crescendo

cool guys don't look at explosions, but you be afforded this, not even having drunk your vial

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"work for me..." ████ ████ ████████ killer shook you by your shoulders "...you'll get revenge"

you looked up at him, vision blurry through your teary eyes, and filth cleaned off of your mouth by the man, using what little clean cloth that he had

the end of his pitch was the sinker

the hook was powers

vials that gave powers

you blinked your eyes before ████ ████ ████████ ██████

you nodded your head before your best friends killer

"yeah..." you said "yeah, i'll work for you..."

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you giggled to yourself. quiet. lidded down. not bursting from your chest walking unnoticed running on vials

you tossed aside the box and swung your most prized possession itty bittily in your gaze

you found an unseen nook to crouch down in and marveled at your perfect crime

you laughed all you could before you finally calmed down and wouldn't choke anything back up

you stood back up and completely tilted the liquid gold back

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

between the shittiness of the inside...

"work for me...you'll get revenge"

and the shittiness of the outside...

"can i just... sit by you?"

you kind of wish that you could save up for a new phone

"i'm running out of ingredients... give me say... a good fifty and i'll promise to pay ya later"

but it looks like you have to accept your phone becoming a pipe bomb

[ Limbus Company ] Official Promotion Video

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

were you a salesman who sold fakes instead of the real deal, you'd have said the taste of it was truly indescribable, and needed to be experienced to be understood

one, this was your's and your's only

two, you wanted your audience to understand just what loser they were for missing out on this; not that you would ever be the loser yourself

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"you never got to—" 'attend his funeral' was unspoken, because the other Hero smacked him before he could complete his PR fuck-up

you wondered whether he'd have mentioned you never even visiting his grave

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

it tasted like [...] and Red and Black and Pale

like White and No Reason To Exist and { 零 }

you breathed through your nose as it took it's sweet time down your throat

it tasted like Magic...

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you never attended his funeral

your psyche was too wrought with his death necessitating it

you were left be

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you stayed hidden away in your secret base, a child before the Magic that you were making encore itself again and again instead of a superpower

Magic. it could only be real life Magic...

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

dead of night, you stumbled into the cemetery tripping over yourself like a drunk. you played one-man-march and searched blindly for the grave you were clueless to everything of. you played one-man-army and scoured for your best friend forever

"My friend, my friend... please don't remember"

you dug down

you dug down

you dug down

sunlight of the hours before made it easy as tearing through playdough

you tore through the casket

you stared at him

his body was ruined

how much of it was your fault?

you didn't vomit again

you ruined him again

you cut through his skin and his flesh and his bone. you picked out those eyes and all that came inside. your cut up his skull and made entry into his brain

hey, your Magic makes your whole blood stream just like it unless you put it on the 'off-switch', how cool was that?

near ravaged woodcraft, near ravaged woodcraft...

it was a very useful detail, because now you would be using your blood

cutting yourself with you knife you found, it took some tries to get them large enough but now you were squeezing out your blood into his skull

mixing in with his brain matter, gold simmered into a green of spring

near there you met your new new best friend…

you watched

you watched your best friend return to you in nonhuman shape

a woodpecker of black and gold just like your hair with your Magic unleashed

you tore up your first and met your second...

"[...]" you whispered, as though you had found god

"me" he twittered back to you

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you left, because everyone would question a little 'girl' whose eyes became the gold of sunlight

and everyone would be right for their first instinct being that 'she' had gotten powers, and that 'she' had intended to use them

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

Magic was trial and error, frustratingly enough

it never went however you two wanted it to go and you had to whack down nails with just a screwdriver

names too, but you had your favorite video game to figure that out

"transformation phrase..." you mumbled

it had to be special

"transformation phrase..."

it had to encompass you

"transformation phrase..."

it had to be perfect

"oh!" you perked up "[...]! i got it!"

"Golden Skew ~ Midnight Sweep!"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"hi there, so i..." you walked up to the desk clerk for a whole 'nother government office. a lot of people would've figured that they'd have to register at the DATV for this sort of thing and be at a snag with a probable wanted status, but they were slow on the uptake sometimes, so other undermarketed programs had to pop up

and nobody would question how nervous you are. anybody would with how much more nerve-wracking the real deal would be

"hi. i'm a victim of the local Memory Purge, and so has my pet. no relatives from what i can figure, but uh, we're also both Civillian-Functional, so i wanted to ask for help on how to register ourselves"

"of course" the clerk had answered, none the wiser to your tricks

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you had discussed it all with [...] on the way there

how you were no longer going to have any responsibilities

no real curfew no bedtime no schedule no proper eating no nothing

how you weren't going to bother with being Heroic or Villainous when you two were Magic

how you were going to do anything that you wanted to forever

how you were going to live the life

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"hah~" your span with your new civvie wardrobe, perched up above [...] admiring your plain comfy charm~

"with that, my days of playing 'girl' are over~"

"and mine just being a boy!" [...] announced, her chest puffing out in pride

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

on the civillian side of things, you drowned yourself in Limbus Company

the Sidekick and her superiors bother the fuck out of you because you were doing nothing, and your existence doing nothing meant they could make up a problem to shove upon you

in your brand new home city, nobody gave you any shit, because instead of being a mentally ill problem to 'fix' and remove from view, you were just another phone addicted brat

much better, because it gave you the privacy that you intended to have

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"i got it~" you sang as you practiced the choreography for your spells

"Thrill Seeking Galoree Daze. that's G-A-L-O-R-E-E D-A-Z-E" you posed with your declaration

"and what about my name?"

"still not picking it?"

"i want it from you"

"alrighto then~" you hummed, booping [...] head "Gold Eraze. that is E-R-A-Z-E"

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"we're going to do this..." you tickled [...] chest feathers, sat on the building's edge and swinging your legs

"we're gonna live out our glory days forever..."

you can't imagine a world grown-up

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

"do you trust me?" [...] finally asked, meaning you didn't have to ask him to spit it out already

"why wouldn't i? it's about time you tell me what it is" you laughed. silly thing, being so nervous in her speech

"it's a surprise... a surprise spell but i..."

"it's okay for it to not go alright" you interrupted "none of our spells work right first time"

"look! i'll close my eyes and count as high as it takes you to do it; take as much time as you need. 1... 2... 3... 4..."

you saw the gold glow of [...] magic through your eyelids

something slipped passed you eye

it came from outside

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you birthed him on [...] and forgot it all [...]

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you had nobody where you grew up...

you had everything here, and your very best friend in the whole wide world...

together you would live our your glory days until you went out blazing...

...

oh...

you vomited on him again...

his decomposed state cupped the liquid and chunks...

hmmm...

that's too little...

there should be more you think...

well...? is it coming...?

thwack.

Eraze finally knocked you away from the sight of his body

you laid slump where you landed

"Eraze..." you muttered "why...?"

you heard his wings flap

"i didn't... i didn't... i wasn't even the real him..."

you saw nowhere

the midnight sky was beautiful in it's devastation

"'not the real him'..." you repeated

you revived him

"i revived you..."

"i was never the real him, just a copy of memories"

"'a copy of memories'..."

not 'you were traumatized'

not 'you wanted to forget'

'a copy of memories'

the gears in your mind whirred

"..." you breathed because it was a bodily function

"my stray child..."

"..."

you took her hand

the sun... is glorious...

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

The Hum Seeking The Hymned Glory Days

ending and canto theme — a stray child[✿], yuki kajiura .

" petals fell like screams once everything was over... "

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you laid flat, staring up, your only movement your lungs and eyelids

Gold Eraze circled around your head

"you're really not the real him, are you?" was the original boy even a girl too? or just like you in not being one?

you didn't want to ask anymore

Gold Eraze landed on your chest puffing her feather, and in regretful somber "i really wish i could be"

you never moved your head; only mouthing words

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

'ew! it's gonna make me look like a raggedy older cousin!' you'd have joked about the jacket you had stolen with...

...

...not your best friend...

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

you snuck into your crime scene, bending under the police tape the as the sun tipped towards setting. your first solo act of delinquency since creating Gold Eraze

you didn't call it a crime because you had broken the law. you called it a crime because you had mangled the burial sites of people just trying to rest in peace, and where anybody else could find closure

just because you couldn't

and now you had the audacity to return here

they ought to come back to life and beat you into the dirt

barely on your knees, you clung to Faust, begging her to take you with her

you walked balancing yourself carefully on the rubble and terrain... to mixed results

you couldn't look. you couldn't look you couldn't look it was all your fault but you couldn't look at how you had razed the cemetary irreversibly this time

Cogito pulsage that had become second nature work it's gears in your body, and all that you were generating was used up as soon as it was gained

you could see that of your hair in front of your eyes flicker back and forth from it's untouched state to glows of gold and pitch black

you stared off into and wandered past all the tombstone and their coffins the with your best friends surname carved into them

his family loved him more than life

he was only twelve

you marched to the center of the root of your stupidity, upheaving every corpses' promised place of rest from there in its savagery

you felt older now

you stared down to where he should have been

he didn't even have a body anymore

you have distorted right on top of him, six feet with him

you were never seeing him again

you heard the crunch of footsteps behind you

you didn't turn to her, and you didn't have to

she wasn't your designated caretaker, and since

"i wanna do that grown-up shit" you stared off wherever

"i wanna do that grown-up shit that isn't buying a house or paying my bills to be independant" you spoke at the burial site

"i'm saying that i want a cigarette or some alcohol and to destroy my body like that. maybe i'll try my hand at stealing one before we gotta leave" you spoke at the sky

you hung your head

"i wanna... really leave this place for real this time..." you turned to Faust

some freebird you were, hm?

you were still as rooted as ever before...

stupid Bough

your brain it's own machine, you thought about how you held you phone one final time, thinking about how it was now to become a useless piece of crap on some landfill

you took her hand

₊ 𓏴 ᛝ 𓏵 ᛝ 𓏴 ₊

a/n: omfg that took so long... this is as high effort as i am getting; istg all future outlines better stay outlines

oh yah!

im a soft metanarrative enjoyer. i like thinking of the formulas i see and wondering of fucking things up a little

essentially, Galoree Daze is a side character who usurped the intended protagonist. here's how it goes—

the ogMC was a independant Hero (in initial outlines he was in the Heroes Association before being removed due to a frame job, but from his perspective is a betrayal) who vows to become a villain after being "betrayed" by the Heroes and having an arrest warrent

the government Department Against Terroristic Villainy has issues, but even from his own retelling, details are suspect

from how he words and frames his own "glory days" as a Hero, it's about Being A Hero more than helping people and harm prevention

now a fugitive, he finds a Golden Bough that somehow finds it's way to Earth by sheer luck. think crossover fics where it's exclusively one element from another work, like having Sans' powers in RWBY

either due to his powers or because it was the equipment of a super that he infiltrated the base of prior to his descent (hey, parallel to Galoree), he is able to create vials that give temporary powers after injesting. he hunkers down in a secret base and decided to turn the Bough and his original superpower into a vial that would grant him an even greater power that is permanent

Galoree's friend died due to the fight he initiated following the Heroes saying they were going to arrest him. in the timeline of everything gone right for him, Galoree does not betray him and remains loyal to him, maybe becoming his second-in-command, but either it never discovers it is queer, or stays in the closet. maybe 'she' is a potential love interest later down the line

it's pretty implied that the Reader was born/raised a girl, and i view bff as having been born/raised a boy. maybe ogMC would have assumed the two sweethearts or crushing on eachother being "opposite genders" and the same age, thinking himself as 'her' second chance

maybe he fools himself into seeing the parallels between him and it, and thinks that 'she' is his second chance in making 'her' never trust the Heroes

maybe 'she' would have believed him. im just tossing ideas around

using his permanent and temporary vial powers, he is able to establish a growing territory against all odds that encompasses and eclipses the Heroes, the world seeing a government that fought against a true Hero but failed, and takes the city as his own in climax of his revenge

because the dominos are set up for a revenge plot wherein the ogMC takes over his city as a villainous overlord, and prefered by the public over the Heroes due to his competency in protecting them, him not having his golden ticket power spells doom

there are threats that come because of him, but there are those that don't

as for our ogMC he decided to join his local office for the Department Against Villainy, gather all the dirt that he can while climbing up the ladder, and instead of merely whisteblowing, he manipulated the evidence to look as horrible as possible in conjecture to his pov of how he was wronged as a Hero, the local department is in shambles and their enemies take advantage

these two factored together means the city he and Galoree grew up in is doomed. ogMC put revenge before reason (his pov of the mirror world "gone right" may even omit consequences of his faults), and Galoree ignored the place to prevent anyone from finding them

and i just realized? this also means that—fuck up as it is for a kid to be in this situation—having usurped the protagonist, the Reader could have tried taking up the protagonist mantle wholly, and done any harm prevention. maybe the Reader thinks this itself which contributes to them leaving with Limbus Company

other thing. the Reader was supposed to steal the vial because the Heroes finally came knocking at the lab. the ogMC would fight them off, Reader would look at the vials, look at the golden vial, look at the vials and drink their gtfo supply (invisibility, quietness, speed, etc.)

before exclusively taking the golden vial to consume

and dumping the other vials on some tree roots or whatever

the ogMC would realize what Reader had down and howled in fury, before bunkering down and coming up with their whistleblowing plan

to also clarify, the Reader does not have magic. it only calls its Cogito 'magic' for the aesthetic of being like a Magical Girl

so fun fact! the whole twist about Gold Eraze being the Galoree's best friend that the ogMC got killed was completely spontaneous. i realized that "hm, i don't think cloistered sleep fits to well here" and then Carmen bestowed upon me her wisdom

compelling methinks. instead of diverging from the hypothetical "canon" mirror world just because, there's a legitimate reason

i first thought to make Gold Eraze the original kid, but i think it's more fun that he is only a copy of memories and behaviors

speaking of being the original or not, it's implied that Gold Eraze had to figure out that he was also a she

you're choice on whether the ogBFF really was she/he but still figuring it out—hence why Gold Raze identified as such—and the Reader unknowingly closeted her post-mortem, or Gold Raze's individuality had always been shining through his replication, and the Reader recognized such

other notes i have on Reader Distorting

i keep making fanfics more horrific than intended, wth

originally i was not gonna include Reader distorting and throw it out as an ideas in the authors notes

and then i realized a stray child would be a good Canto theme so it ended up in here

why did nobody ever google how Reader's childhood city was doing after it confessed to their origins? i didnt want to think about the smaller details of the super scene. literally the only name other than the Reader's is the Department Against Terroristic Villainy (which i shorten to the Department Against Villainy or the DATV)

oh yeah, references

"Stems and Leaves Blossoming as if by Magic…"[1]

"i used~♩ to think~♩ it was not worth it~♩" / "that i~♩ just have to~♩ endure it~♩"[2]

"The third light illuminates; your mind clears and your wounds close…"[3]

"that's a dead kid..."[4]

{ 零 }[5]

Old Ladyyyy[6]

the necrophilic underage pregnancy metaphor was an accident

"petals fell like screams once everything was over..."[7]

some extra details i didn't add in

by the time the fic would begin, Reader would blink at the fact their phone isn't burning up playing the game before remembering they bought a better one using the money they stole as Galoree

to prevent ppl from questioning how they afford it however, they and Candy enchanted a phone chame to make it look like the older model

due to the number of supers creating modified creatures that were released or escaped, or simply didn't have enough of whatever makes a 'proper' superpower, it was simply much easier to let the harmless ones roam free, and it's kinder on PR

in the scenario someone has a civillian-functional creature they wish to keep as a pet, they first have to bring it to a vet trained specially for civillian-functional creatures (including the ones with proper superpowers)

so sometimes people have civillian-functional pets. Gold Eraze is able to exist in public without impacting civillian life due to this

speaking of which, Civillian-Functional is colloquial term for someone who isn't powerless on a technicality, but again, doesn't have enough of whatever it takes in their body to make a 'functioning' superpower, so they have to live with being a civillian through and through

the confrontation where Reader doesn't try to escape for Eraze's sake is delightfully ironic to me. i deliberately didn't state that yeah, Eraze's blood is straight up Enkephalin colors, because i wanted to try to delay the reveal of his nature even tho i think it was already obvious lol. Eraze would've been okay but were Reader to die, we'd get an abnormality carrying a copy of it's memories coming out too in the best case scenario

the initial plan was that the LCB only had civillian lives and figured out through being Adults With Brains that the Reader was sneaking out at night to vigilante, though the Sinners scouring around the super scene is something i can see them doing

the Reader was originally supposed to consent to the memory wipe, but my muse made them have no clue

some inspiration!

the whole fanclub to profit and divert suspicion came from PERFECT! PERFECT! PERFECT![8] by dummy1001

the Reader adoring their Magical Form was inspired by gemjewelrybox's posts about her Magical Girl Reader doing the same, though said blog (and series) has since been deleted