#merese

Irimar, the forge rebellious.

I made the picrew based off the image and tbh I think I did pretty good.

Though the first image definitely feels like a younger version of her, which is perfectly fine.

heck you know I should just post the whole story of the Ending that I wrote to submit to Artifexian, that feels rather like useful context for this whole thing… okay I’ll post that later. For now, have a small piece I made between The Forge and Cansoo, the main character (kinda, it’s more a shared cast) of this story!

Anyway Irimar is the one who really kicked off this whole thing. It’s her fault that the world still exists, so that’s pretty fun. After the whole debacle of the Ending, this forge often will jokingly grumble about the name they gave her.

A short angsty scene dealing with mortality:

“And if you believe it, the others are still called by their proper titles!” She rolled her eyes as her hands bent the dark metal smoothly back into place. An almost imperceptible sigh escaped from her before she moved toward the next piece. “I’m the only one who got an entirely new name from that whole debacle? Fuck, I mean - You prevent the prophesied end of the world one time…”

“Isn’t that something to be proud of though?” Cansoo put aside the small circuit they had been fiddling with before looking at Merese’s calloused hands making movements that were foreign to that body.

The Forge creased her brow for a second, examining one of the particularly damaged plates on the side of AEH.

“Is something wrong with H? I checked the diagnostics ports on that side and did a physical… do you see anything?

“No, no it’s not that.” The Forge grabbed the plate from AEH’s side, detaching it and setting about molding the metal.

“You’re right, that’s all. I should be proud. That would be… a normal reaction. It’s weird to see them again, the other Forges, but… I should be proud. Irimar was ecstatic, after all. She always said that they could use a bit of a shake-up.”

Cansoo gave a small smile at the mention of Irimar, but kept pressing. “Flake on me for saying so, but you don’t seem very proud.”

The Forge continued the rhythmic process of molding the plate with her hand, eyes focused on the piece. “Well I’m not saying I did a bad thing, I just didn’t -”

Cansoo scoffed.

“didn’t What? You saved. the world. You’r-”

The plate of armor hit the table and was suddenly wrenched completely out of shape again as The Forge’s hands pressed into and deformed its surface.

“I didn’t save shit. I sacrificed the world so that something could keep going. Do you know how many people died that day? The world before the Ending was actually something worth saving and I messed it all up!” Her hand hit the armor again with a clang, and it was no longer dark, but red-hot. The Forge turned to stare at Cansoo out of deep brown eyes that were not hers. “And you know what’s worse? They kept dying. It wasn’t just the first day. The sands came… The world I had, the world of Irimar, and Tzeela, and Cheni… all of their families… all of my families. I have… no idea if any of their, children? Grandchildren? Still remember me? D-do they keep the photos? Did they even live? That’s the thing, Cansoo. I’m going to see you die, and there’s nothing I can do about it, except I guess make you proud of me? Which for some fucking reason Merese decided I needed to care about because she cared about you but then I killed her. too.” 

The Forge blinked and looked around, seemingly realizing that she had stood up, and collapsed back into the chair, pulling back a lock of Merese’s hair that had tumbled in front of her face. 

Cansoo realized that they were crying.

“I really hope you get to see her, when you do… end. That’s what she always said would happen, right?”

The Forge looked up at Cansoo for a moment with a small hopeful smile. “Yeah. Merese said she’d wait for me. I just wish I could do more.”