☆ pronouns: he/they in character, hx/ask out of character

☆ boundaries:

⭑ suggestive and flirty comments are fine, tho please keep REAL nsfw out of the asks! If I do see anything nsfw i'll probably just ignore the ask ⭑ I love interacting with other rp blogs, BUT I would also love questions for me to answer in character, from other characters or just you as a person! ⭑ I am fine with interacting with both canon characters AND ocs! ⭑ if I state i'm uncomfortable with a topic, PLEASE listen to it! otherwise I will just abandon the rp! ⭑ if you want to roleplay with specifically post-incident Wander, please state it beforehand, otherwise I will automatically go to pre-incident Wander :] ☆ lore/personality: ⭑ lore; Wander is an Indigo Steve who's pretty bored of his job of helping people to the world beyond, and so when there's nobody to help goes to explore the overworld. This is where Wander meets Sabre and a Blue Steve who's helping Sabre learn more about the World Beyond. Wander ends up falling in love with this blue steve (ewww gay) called Bluebell. Tho, he ends up being too scared to tell Bluebell. One day in which Bluebell and Wander are in the Rainbow King for their own and the other Steve's safety, Bluebell ends up passing away in an attack from Void and Wander ends up getting infected by the Darkness. Wander's sanity, in his grief and guilt for Bluebell's death and anger at Void for said death, starts draining rapidly. In this insanity he ends up researching any way to destroy Void, not caring about any possible consequences. This ends up leading him to the story of the hero, and drives him to want to become this hero. In this insanity driven want he ends up absorbing other steve's, which causes to become less and less himself which feeds into his insanity, aswell as the small patch of darkness feeding his drive. In the end, absorbing these steve's causes him to slowly fade out of his own conciousness, causing him to become a whole other being which eventually collapses under it's slow growing lack of steve-ness (idk the word ok...) ⭑ personality; - pre-incident; kind but reclusive. suprisingly adventurous despite that, tho. - post-incident; slow to no mental humanity & aggresive. ☆ credits: divider - @corbingraphics pfp art - @cherryxfanta (TWIN!) banner art - @keeper-of-time-rq (me lelele) ☆ tags:

⭑ wander's house … — general tag

⭑ "birds don't sing" … — replying to asks

⭑ "and not how I turned out to be" … — rps with other people

⭑ "run rabbit run rabid" … — random in character messages

⭑ "if it was all in my mind" … — ooc messages

[TR Elite pov, written 6/12/22]

I was lying on an uncomfortable, cold, hard floor. My ears rang with a laugh I knew had to be Sabre's. I squirmed and muttered words of spite in my sleep.

A hand on my shoulder shook me awake.

"Ah!" I shouted, bolting up.

"Oh, it's you, M. Thanks.. Yeah, another nightmare, about Sabre this time. Wait...why do you look different?"

I scanned our immediate surroundings. We were in an alleyway, but everything didn't have normal cube shapes like I was used to.

I glanced down at my hands.

"Why do I look different?!"

I was taken aback by the sudden change.

We were just at the Yellow Steves' village, I had just left that machine they made for me. I didn't recall Twisted or Sabre being anywhere nearby, so why were we here?

"M? Any idea where we are?"

The Red Steve shrugged.

"Great. I can't decide if being in an unknown land with strange proportions is any better than our previous situation. Just as bad I guess," I stood up as I spoke.

My focus shifted to a commotion going on just beyond the alleyway.

"Should we check it out?" I asked M in hushed tones.

M nodded.

We peeked behind the wall, revealing a fight to us unlike any I knew. The three figures fought with abilities I had never seen before.

It concerned yet fascinated me.

And even stranger, were those I saw not fighting. The civilians most certainly weren't like Steves, they looked nothing like Sabre yet I felt they were more like him than a Steve.

I ducked back into the alleyway, trying to think of a plan.

M and I were in no shape for a fight, not yet at least. And definitely not against these strangers. I had no idea what would work against them.

Even if I still had the Darkness, would it even work on them?

M turned towards me, concern in his eyes.

"I'm fine. We need to figure out where we are. Or at least find some shelter, who knows what these...entities are and what they could do."

M looked down for a moment. He grabbed a balled up paper and a broken pencil.

"Well that's certainly useful," I let a tiny smile slip by as M scribbled something down.

'We could run the other way while the fight is going on'

I nodded. "Good idea, pull your hood up just in case."

We left the alleyway hesitantly, trying to not be suspicious. M followed me as we moved quickly away from the fight. We kept to the side, avoiding people as best we could. Sometimes we went into another alleyway.

We stopped for a break after a while. We needed to think of a real plan.

What if that nightmare wasn't a nightmare? What if Sabre was here? Or Twisted and The Great One? What if we'll have to fight them here?

I gulped down my fear. This weird world was real, there was no doubt about it. So we'd have to learn to survive, whether or not we liked it.

Same as always.

"M?"

He looked up.

"Maybe we should go to the rooftops, maybe we'll figure out where we are from there."

He nodded, motioning towards a set of stairs above us.

"Oh. Didn't see that, haha."

We made our way up after pulling down an attached ladder. I kept thinking about this strange world we woke up in.

Where? Who? Why? Why were we brought here? Who are the residents of this world? What kind of reality did we even land in?!

I pushed aside my thoughts as we reached the top. The sky was beautiful. It actually made me stop worrying for a moment and just take it all in. All the violets and blues and indigos blended together into a masterpiece.

"Maybe this place isn't so bad." I muttered a bit louder than expected. "Shoot, did I say that out loud?"

M glanced at me, smiling.

"Yup. Let's say we wander a bit until something interesting happens or it starts getting dark?"

M nodded, scribbling something on the paper again.

'We should find food as well, the rooftops seem pretty good for temporary shelter'

"Hmm. Yeah that's true. There seems to be places around here for food but I doubt we'd be welcome," I sighed, "I don't want to bother with stealing right now, I'm still getting used to this new..shape I guess? It's so strange..." my mind wandered off again.

Maybe there's someone else out there like us. Enemy or not, I just wanted to see a familiar face. Okay, maybe not, but you get the point.

I was brought back to reality as I sensed a Steve's energy in the distance.

"Did you feel that?"

M nodded, glancing behind, eyes wide.

"Let's find them."

I hopped to the next rooftop without hesitation. I looked back, M hesitating to follow.

"Well? We're not getting anywhere just wandering. Let's go."

M rolled his eyes as if to say 'if we get killed know it's all your fault,' before leaping across himself.

It wasn't the Darkness, or the Twisted, so it had to be something else. Whatever it was, I'd rather deal with whatever Steve this was than anyone I knew.

Those Yellow Steves, though, we're cool. Everybody else is dead to me.

We found them quickly. A clock-faced Steve and a Red Steve-like one with tree branches for horns and a belt made of literal water, smiling and laughing together.

They seemed like siblings, good friends at least. Wonder what that felt like.

M tugged my sleeve, showing me his paper.

'Should we talk to them? They seem powerful'

I sighed, watching the Steves. "What choice do we have? At least they seem friendlier than anyone we know. We'll just approach carefully and hope nothing goes wrong."

I could see doubt in M's eyes, and I had my own doubts. This was no plan I would allow for back in my world. But I felt more lost than before. At least I knew who I was dealing with, where I was.

"I don't like this any more than you do, but right now we don't know anything about this place. We need help."

With that, we left the rooftop to find one of those staircases down. I didn't bother pulling down the ladder when we reached the bottom, I just jumped down.

"Oof, okay, now where are they..?" I looked up just as M jumped down. I made eye contact with the strange Steves.

"Oh fuck," I muttered quickly, looking away immediately.

"Ahem. Who are you two?" One spoke, their deep voice startling me out of my awkwardness.

"Uh- crap- okay so this is M, I'm..I used to be known as a Dark Elite Guard, but I'm not welcome with the Darkness anymore soo...I don't know honestly."

"Wait, M? We know someone named that too! He has a similar robe as well! I'm Time Steve!" 'Time Steve' smiled.

He had a quiet ticking laid over his voice. It was kinda cool.

"Huh? Really? Well that was unexpected. We showed up here, we really don't know what's going on-"

"Makes sense. We did too. Apparently we fell from the sky, but I was unconscious at the time so maybe they're all just lying," he smiled. "Who knows. I'm Elemental Steve by the way."

"We can take you back to U.A., lots of others have showed up here unexpectedly like you. I'm sure they won't mind a couple more. By the way, M, can he not speak?" Time Steve said, turning toward said Steve.

"No. Twisted did something to him, apparently permanently taking his voice."

Elemental raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. "Who's Twisted?"

I was shocked that these two never heard of the Twisted or Twisted Rainbow himself. I mean, sure, they were Steves I didn't recognize, but maybe I just hadn't met them. I hadn't done much besides fighting against the Twisted after all.

Little did I know just how big the world really was.

I got a few looks from the other people around before asking Time Steve about them.

"So...what are these..other people anyways? They're not Steves."

"Oh, they're humans. This universe is quite strange, isn't it? They're born with unique powers they call 'quirks' for whatever reason. I'm surprised you didn't think they were humans like yourself."

The last sentence caught me off guard.

"What? Wha- why would I assume them to be like me? I'm not like them! I used to be a Steve...at least I think..." I trailed off, glancing at myself.

Was I a Steve? I couldn't remember. My skin had taken on a less pale color after the Yellow Steves' machine, but even now I could tell I wasn't like them.

What was I then?

"Sorry! Didn't mean to make any assumptions! You just remind me of a friend, he's not a Steve either!"

Time's voice pulled me out of my head.

I stumbled on my words, not sure how to explain that I don't actually know what I am.

"It's fine, okay?" Time stopped walking and turned around, putting a hand on my shoulder.

He was a lot taller than me.

"We'll figure things out when we get to U.A., I promise."

His warm smile calmed my nerves.

The rest of the walk was awkward. At least for me. M seemed giddy at the idea of meeting another Steve with his name.

I was too busy wondering who this friend was.

Sabre? It wouldn't make sense, he's gone off the wall now. He wouldn't make friends, just enemies. I started thinking back to our latest fight.

Why did he run away? He broke my armor, I was completely vulnerable. He was already off the deep end at the time, what would've stopped an insane man from murder? Was I that ugly?

Why would that stop him anyways? Did I remind him of a friend, like Time had mentioned? Did Time and Sabre know each other then?

"We're here," Elemental announced.

I ran into him, completely lost in thought.

"Oh Darkness, sorry-" I backed off nervously.

"It's fine. The security here is pretty tough so we're just going to teleport into the dorms. Time's staying out here so we don't get in trouble," he laughed, "we're probably going to anyways. Ready?"

M nodded, and so I did too.

We arrived in a living room, playful shouting coming from the kitchen. Two Steves were hanging out on a nearby couch.

"Oh! Elemental! You're back early! And...who's that with you?" The Indigo Steve asked.

Every Indigo Steve absolutely towered over me. I never knew why, but maybe now I'll get some answers.

"Someone. One's named M, this one...just doesn't know. Give him a name I guess. If you need me, don't." Elemental teleported away at that moment.

"Rude," I mumbled under my breath.

The Indigo Steve looked us over.

"Huh. The M I know does have a similar cloak but not exactly. I don't think you're from the universe I know. Come, we won't bite."

I questioned if this was a good idea at all, letting these Steves just take us wherever we were now. M didn't hesitate to join the Indigo Steve and Orange Steve. I chose a chair close to a door, away from the others.

"M can't speak, by the way. You'll need signs or something if you want to talk directly," I said as I sat.

It was nice, I guess. Comfortable chairs. The Orange Steve summoned a book as soon as I said something. M and the Indigo Steve started "chatting" soon after.

I let my eyes wander to the kitchen, where I could see two figures run past the doorway every once in a while. I could hear their banter but couldn't put a name to their voices.

"Hey!" I turned my head back to the Steves.

"Yeah, what," I responded bluntly.

"M here said you used to be part of the Darkness, but you're not any more. He doesn't want to talk much about this...war between the Darkness and something called the Twisted. Can you explain?"

I sighed.

"Fine. The Twisted is created by Twisted Rainbow, the Darkness is currently led by The Great One. The Twisted attacked first, and we rose up to infect the Steves to save them from the Twisted. It was the better wrong of the two..

I used to be an Elite Guard for the Darkness, but things...went wrong. Sabre showed up, Twisted started manipulating him and I kidnapped him to show him the truth.

But he ended up joining sides with some...voice. I don't know much about it, just that after that he got this mysterious sword with a clock on it and he gained powers. Plus he basically went insane.

We fought, and I lost. I used to have armor, it was given by The Great One. But then Sabre broke it. He almost killed me, I was completely vulnerable, yet as soon as he saw me he ran away.

I ended up getting kicked out of the Darkness army for getting my ass kicked. I can't even use Darkness any more. I crossed paths with M, joining forces, we used to be on opposing sides. I decided to return to a Yellow Steve village that helped me unexpectedly, that's why my core is bright like this."

I took a deep breath after all of that. I silently cursed myself for telling these random Steves all of that.

There was a long silence following my info dump. I couldn't tell if it was comforting or not.

A different voice broke the silence.

"I have no idea where you came from, but that sounds like hell, man."

I whipped my head around to a familiar non-Steve standing in the doorway nearby. I froze.

"I already know I'm gonna hate this other me if we meet," he said nonchalantly, taking a seat himself.

He had the same green hoodie. Same bandanna.

Yet he wasn't the same Sabre I knew. Probably.

"Quick question, do you know how you're connected to...uh, the Sabre you know (I think?)" He asked me directly.

"Uhm...no? I don't think so...I mean, we both have some sort of amnesia apparently...but I thought that was it.."

"Huh. That's...odd. Because you look a lot like me. And if you know of the Darkness and there's another version of M from there...I think that was a different version of my reality. At least in some ways. The amnesia is...interesting. I don't know why you wouldn't know you were his shadow," not-Sabre trailed off as I started another identity crisis.

I could hear someone speaking, lots of shouting.

But it was all far away now. It was just me and this reality-shattering realization, alone with my thoughts.

My vision blurred as it dawned on me.

I was Sabre's shadow?

I am his shadow?

Why did I never know?

Why did no one tell me?

Who am I?

Is my name Shadow Sabre?

Is it not?

Why did I exist before Sabre?

Was there ever a 'before'?

What was my purpose?

Did I even have one?

...

I was violently shook by someone, falling out of my chair. And flat on my face.

"I'm okay!"

I pulled myself up, still shaking but slightly less overwhelmed.

I sure as hell hope I didn't look like an idiot there.

That probably shouldn't have been my first priority honestly.

"Sorry, dude. I didn't think that would be that big of a deal. Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine- I think." I took a shaky breath, trying to calm down. "I didn't think the truth would scare me so bad either. I..I don't know why I wasn't aware of this... My whole life I assumed I was a Steve... That was why he ran...he didn't know either, did he?" I stared up at my lookalike.

"I guess so. Let me help you up," he grabbed my hand and I willingly let him. "How about you and M come with me somewhere more comfortable. We can figure things out from there."

"Sure I guess..."

I glanced at M. He nodded.

We went up a flight of stairs to his room.

It was a lot nicer than I expected. Probably because I expected the Sabre I knew.

"I have no idea what kind of hell happened in your universe. Judging from...everything, nothing good. You guys stay here, I'll find M and we'll figure things out from there. Oh, and you can call me RQ Sabre if that makes it less confusing."

"Okay-"

'RQ Sabre' left before I could finish my sentence.

"Well, that was...something."

M wrote something in his book.

'You okay?'

"Yeah I'll be fine. It's...just strange. Why wouldn't I know? I literally thought his shadow was hiding somewhere! Why would Sabre not know either, anyways? I don't remember anything beyond being a Dark Elite Guard.."

I heard his pen against the paper.

'It is confusing. I didn't know what you were until now. I have a feeling your identity was hidden from everyone for a reason.'

"Good to know it wasn't just me who got the news last."

"We're back!" RQ Sabre was back already.

"Hello other me!"

I may have smiled hearing the other M's voice. Totally not because I missed it. Totally not soft for him now.

"Heyo. I have someone else I think could help with all...this. Meet my OWN shadow!"

With that, a dark figure appeared beside RQ Sabre. He had an astronaut suit on, oddly reminding me of my armor. It had red decor against black material.

I realized I really didn't know much about myself, when I realized I never saw myself in a mirror without my armor on.

I had no idea if this Shadow Sabre looked like me.

"Uh- crap- I don't actually know what I look like- hold on-" I went over to a mirror.

I tried not to dwell on it. Just a quick check. Not a big deal.

Yeah, I was in fact Shadow Sabre. I never thought about the bandanna...somehow that never came to mind. I stared for a minute but didn't dwell too long for once.

"Okay, yeah. The truth is true," I let out a nervous laugh as I walked back to RQ Sabre.

"Sabrrrrree, can I please just hang out with him? One day? One hour? Pleaseeee, you got to hang out with your own and he's cool!"

I laughed as the other Shadow Sabre pestered RQ Sabre to let him hang out with me, turning into a little spat.

"No, he just arrived. Maybe you can ask him later, but not right now! Now, begone foul demon me!" RQ tried not to laugh as he banished the other..me back to wherever he came from.

"Let's just ignore that idiot now *cracks up, making TR!Shadow laugh* anyway-" RQ became more serious, "I actually think I know a little bit about the Sabre you know. I've been having strange, almost nightmarish dreams, where I was in an unfamiliar place with an insane Rainbow Steve and the First Curse speaking in my head.

It's weird, because I had dreams about another version of me early on in my original universe. That's one I met here, he's actually completely disconnected from our...multiverse I think? Whatever you'd call two worlds that are weirdly similar.

But yeah, I've been documenting the dreams, and it sounds like they line up with your world."

"What do you remember off the top of your head?"

"Besides things you've actually seen Sabre involved with, I saw the First Curse, you maybe don't know him. But he was manipulating me, err, your Sabre, into siding with him.

He's pretty much the worst evil I fought. I couldn't reverse what he did to my universe unless I purposefully went through this time loop.

But I guess something happened because of that.. I don't want to think of why the First Curse was manipulating the Sabre you know. I don't want to think of what misery I've caused by wanting my universe to exist.

I know I'm the one who caused it because one conversation has stuck with me...

The First Curse said he needed the Core, but was interrupted by someone before he could understand it. He said he needed it to stabilize and be able to traverse the multiverse. He said he was defeated in the original universe but he is eternal.

And he was able to find the Sabre you know..in a completely different kind of situation from every other universe. I can't remember why he was different, but it meant he had a lot of power within the universe you know.

There also was a whole cryptic thing about the multiverse having a curse that's in every Sabre, and that the 'original universe' was to blame. It scared me, because I somehow knew that he meant me, despite being in a dream as your Sabre.

Hopefully that was useful..."

I sat there, taking it all in. This 'First Curse' guy tried to destroy RQ's universe, and somehow that resulted in him manipulating the Sabre I knew into going insane.

"Fantastic. Now I have to fight a guy that's literally me but not that's ALSO sided with an evil god," that was the only thing I could think to say.

"Welp. Good luck I guess. Here's to hoping he NEVER shows up here," RQ nervously laughed and I did too.