Another runner AU wheeeeeee (featuring my art getting better over time as I improved!!) Click for full image and alt description!
@artist-issues’ Runner Five metaphorically and literally found Lydia in a dumpster after she’d been Runner Five for a few months (mid Season 1). From being alone for a LOT longer than in her original story, and younger in this version, Lydia is a Lot Worse mentally. It takes quite some convincing, but Five brings Lydia back to Abel to learn to trust and rely on people again, and that life does in fact have meaning and even though it seems like the end of the world, God still has a purpose for it and her.
They take to each other quickly because of their shared faith which they mutually strengthen, they both love literary analysis, and Lydia recognizes Five is mute but is instantly able to communicate with her because her brother was deaf and she knows sign language. So when Chris McShell dies, Five convinces Lydia to become Runner Ten. They go on all their runs together so that Ten can dictate Five’s signs for Sam (who instantly also adopts her as a young and fiery bean who needs Help™️ and people to love her)
In this AU, my girl is 17 while Artist’s is 21, and they adopt each other as sisters. Ten is a chaotic, goofy, slightly annoying younger sister who just ADORES Five, while Five has to restrain Ten common sense/advice-wise at times and occasionally from physical violence 😂 They speak in sarcasm, movie quotes, Bible verses, and Twenty One Pilots lyrics. Whenever they’re not running or playing DnD with Sam, you can usually find them curled up in their bunk room reading a book and debating it together.
The one thing they will never agree about is Skittles vs peanut butter M&Ms. Its started a heated supply-run rivalry more than once. (Sam is not complaining) But besides that, it’s ride-or-die-you’re-stuck-with-me-because-I-love-you-forever-you’re-not-getting-rid-of-me friendship on both sides.
