#chosenweek2018

“Heh. It’s pathetic, isn’t it? Used to be, I could take off my shirt and make girls swoon. Now that would just make ‘em want to puke.”

Chosen Week Day 3: “Role-Reversal”

Chosen week day 1: Childhood

It was easy to forget how lonely she was, sometimes. People were always friendly and polite, and they always smiled. It wasn’t hard to smile back and pretend they were happy to see her because she was Colette, not because she was the Chosen One who would bring the oracle of Salvation. They were kind to her because they had placed all their hopes on her small shoulders, and though they smiled there was still a distance between them and her. She would become an angel one day, and that was the only thing they saw when they looked at her, the Chosen One who would regenerate the world.

Then she met someone else who was different. Someone else who stood apart from everyone else. He was from outside of town, and lived with a dwarf, and he never once gave her that same distant smile everyone else always offered. She had never been offered friendship before, only polite respect. The other children near her age would play if she asked them to, but never for long, and she was never invited to go with them anywhere. It wasn’t allowed, because she might get hurt. Lloyd never seemed to think twice about extending his hand to her though.

The two of them were not like everyone else, and she was happy to have someone that didn’t seem to care as much about the Chosen One and instead could see Colette. They laughed together, and even if he wasn’t allowed to go to the religious ceremonies, she knew he would be waiting and willing to listen afterward when she wanted to be reminded that she was Colette and not just the Chosen One.

Then the pair of them became a trio, adopting into their number another person who didn’t fit in with everyone else. He was an elf, an outsider and not the same race, but to Lloyd and Colette it didn’t matter. They readily accepted him and the year he moved to Iselia was the first time Colette ever had a birthday celebration just for herself, not a celebration of the approaching day of the Oracle. 

She had always been expected to become an angel, but meeting these two had given that meaning. The notion had always frightened her a little before, the knowledge of what becoming an angel truly meant, but the idea of not protecting the world where everyone lived was scarier than becoming an angel. She would protect the happiness of Lloyd and Genis and the other people she cared about. 

Zelos didn’t believe in fate. Fate was a word the people with more power than he had used to rewrite lives to suite their own ends. It was ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ that guided the marriages the Church proposed, ‘fate’ that kept the mana lineage pure for Cruxis. His own bride would be chosen for him by ‘fate’ too. Once he’d mockingly called Pronyma ‘fate’, knowing her ties to those who manipulated the Church. She hadn’t risen to his bait, but he hadn’t expected her too.

He didn’t believe that fate was the reason half-elves were treated poorly, even if that was the casual explanation everyone seemed to accept. It was another convenient excuse by the powerful, a tool in the arsenal to keep others beneath them. Fate was just another word they threw around to keep people complacent. Prejudice was easier, complacency was simple. “It’s just their fate” people would shrug, because no one had a choice to be born as one race or another. It was the easy excuse.

If there were such a thing as fate, he would never have been born. Hadn’t his mother even said it would be better that way?

There was no such thing as fate, only people who used the word to twist things for their own purpose. He could change his so called fate himself just by getting in touch with the right people.

Chosen week will run from January 8th - January 14th. Just like any other celebration week you can contribute in any way you want: fan fictions, fan arts, edits, and anything else really as long as it applies to Colette and Zelos.

The only difference for this week is the set of the different days. There will be 3 days specific word prompt, 3 days with a word and quote then 1 free day. Just because the quote is said by one or the other your contribution could be for either one of them as long as it applies to the daily theme.

January 8th: Childhood

January 9th: Freedom

Quote: "Even if I lose my body, my heart will still be free." -Colette

January 10th: Role reversal

January 11th: Admiration

Quote: "You're amazing Colette. I could never be like that." -Zelos

January 12th: Fate

January 13th: Character development

Quote: This time, I don't want to disappear. I really don't." -Colette

January 14th: Festival of the Chosens ( Free day )

The track tag for this event is: #Chosenweek2018

“No, you really are amazing. Compared to you, I-”

Chosen Week Day 4: “Admiration”

Zelos sneered. “Me, a good person? Not a chance. I’ve done way worse than any of you have. Have fun and don’t try too hard- that was the kind of life we all lived. And I enjoyed it. I felt good about screwing over other people’s lives for my own personal benefit. Nothing will ever be enough to fix some of the things I did.” He looked at each of his cousins in turn, though Stella and Taylor were avoiding eye contact and Emmett really didn’t seem to care. "But that doesn’t mean I’m not trying, and it doesn’t mean there aren’t people willing to forgive me.” -Equilibrium chapter 16

Chosen Week Day 1: “Childhood”

For today I wanted to draw Zelos’ cousins that I’ve introduced in my fic Equilibrium and contrast his unhealthy friendship with them and his loving relationship with Seles. While I’m sure his interactions with the other “high-society” kids weren’t any less genuine on his part (as genuine as Zelos could be, anyway), they certainly weren’t as heartfelt. The Wilder cousins (sans Seles) all grew up into pretty shitty people, though Zelos eventually turned himself around thanks to the influence of a certain other Chosen and her friends.♡ Maybe we’ll get to see the others change their ways later in Equilibrium.

As a bonus, have a family tree because I had to make one in order to keep the cousins straight while writing:

A single moment and six simple words changed his life forever. “You should never have been born.”

A single moment and the six words she had heard throughout her life suddenly had an entirely new meaning. “We are grateful for the chosen.”

“Zelos, I trust you”

It was funny how much three simple words could send his whole world off kilter. He had thought he had everything lined up perfectly. The choice was his at any time, he could side with anyone he wanted. Cruxis had offered him everything he’d ask for, the chance to erase his life as the Chosen and fix the mistake of being born. The Renegades were fine for backup, Yuan was just as capable of arranging what Cruxis had promised him. Zelos could probably even force the Renegade leader’s hand if it came down to it, provoke him into that killing blow so the contract would be sealed. He did have a knack for pissing the man off.

Then there was Lloyd and Colette, the weakest link. Sure, they had all the ideals and more faith and hope than he’d probably ever scraped together in his life, but ideals didn’t win wars. Ideals got people killed. They were up against a force that had rewritten the world, a person who had manipulated entire nations for thousands of years. Siding with them made no sense at all, and yet there was that third option extending him a hand and some stupid little words that shouldn’t mean anything. Why was it such a shock to hear something like that?

He’d never had trust before. He wasn’t sure what to do with it, especially since he already knew he was going to break it. It was crazy how much that idea was bothering him, eating away at him. Throwing away someone’s trust in the past had been as simple as breathing, because it hadn’t ever been real trust in the first place. There was no such thing in the back-stabbing world of politics he’d grown up in. He didn’t deserve this trust, so maybe it was better that he already knew he would break it.