#dying.

i’m sick what do you do when you remember your best friend doesn’t age anymore? what do you do when you remember he’s not here anymore? what do you do when you’re up in the sky and still look to your left thinking he’s there while making ridiculous cheering noises at every flip? what do you do when you can only clutch onto his burnt dog tags with your life because sometimes you wake up with a start and the memory of a blaze and screams and the feeling of hopelessness

I was gonna try a comic thing but I feel like it's better if I just outright say where this is going tbh.

Mostly bc I'm not entirely sure how I am gonna get them there but I have an idea. And if anyone wants to branch off from this feel completely free too 😭

So First Cream creates the Soul jam of determination and places it into 3 cookies baked by the Shadow witch, because she's realized that Dark Enchantress's existence is a threat to Earthbread.

She's aware of everything that's been happening with the Beasts, but doesn't have faith in the ancients. (Given this is before Gingerbrave and friends help reunite them, it's kinda complicated)

But essentially her goal is for these 3 cookies to bring about the defeat of Dark enchantress cookie and save Earthbread.

Gingerbrave, Strawberry cookie and Wizard cookie eventually realize this hidden goal shortly after Pure Vanilla awakens. Whether this happens in beast yeast or after they leave I haven't decided.

But to be quite clear Determination has it's own goal and the creation being essentially First Cream's way of removing the Soul jams and the danger they've been to Earth bread has clouded it in a very "Possessing a Soul jam will corrupt you." Way.

Tldr: Determination and by extension its 3 off shoots believe that Soul jams cannot be wielded without corruption.

This directly leads into Wizard cookie's decision once the light of Curiosity begins to speak to him. Curiosity itself believes and pushes Wizard cookie to believing that Soul jams are not and cannot be controlled.

With their mission being defeating Dark Enchantress cookie, Wizard cookie decides that there is one clear path forward. Now whether I have Wizard cookie figure out this decision from what Silent salt did to the beasts or if he decides that determination can hold Dark Enchantress cookie I dunno yet.

But what I do know is that Wizard cookie and Curiosity manage to convince Gingerbrave and Strawberry cookie (Albiet extremely reluctantly and very ironically. Given that First cream split determination specifically to prevent corruption...) that Sealing Dark Enchantress cookie alongside themselves would be the best if not only option.

Add on the fact that From Wizard cookie's perspective, the ancients kept their wits because of the beasts and since they don't have counterparts like that he believes that Corruption is inevitable. He's viewing Determination and its off shoots directly as the same as the original virtues rather than the new virtues.

This has consequences.

These consequences being that the designs I drew are sort of a lie. Unlike the beasts who started uncorrupted, Determination as a whole was corrupted from the start.

First Cream kinda messes up by having their goal be "stop the corruption of Earthbread" rather than help Cookies. Her emotions of despair at the emissaries actively fucks up the creation of Determination.

Tldr 2: determination was screwed from the beginning.

Their corruption isn't like an Evil thing either, it's the full abandonment of their views as individuals in favor of the goal set out by First cream cookie. Which is to somewhat mirror the beasts but unlike them who were specifically created for their soul jams, Gingerbrave, Wizard cookie and strawberry cookie were given theirs as First cream found cookies to be baked by the Shadow witch who fit them.

Worst of both worlds.

Anyway most my thoughts about this au come after Wizard cookie determines that using themselves as a seal against Dark enchantress cookie is the perfect solution. Specifically on how the trio go about doing it and what happens during and after the seal.

Of course Dark Enchantress would very quickly realize that the trio aren't as uncorrupted as they'd hope. This creates both an opening and a bit of concern..

Oh yeah and no one knows what happened outside of them. From the outside the trio died killing Dark Enchantress cookie. Specifics on this are still burning around in my mind.