#stranger creatures

@meggie-madrigal .. @mia-ships .. @soulnottainted

@changeling-spoonie-selfship .. @jaschevidot .. @little-miss-selfships

@corpxgoth .. @dreams-and-honor ..

@d3rlord3-kisser .. @midnight-rockstar .. @emberheroships .. @midgelslovebug

@jinx-xoxo .. @badapplegate .. @usamis-puppy .. @hearts4fiction .. @cherry-bomb-ships

Set in the post-breach city of DEMA, Axel has joined Nova as one of the new Nine Bishops that rule The City.

Much like Clancy's own Bishop Ending Timeline, Axel is hopeful that being at Nova's side will be able to open him back up and allow Axel to bring his Clancy home once more. Instead, Nova tests all of Axel's willingness to be with him as well as doing things for his own personal gain.

However, Torchbearer is back out in Trench alone. He feels some sort of way about Axel being in this cycle. In his heart, he knows that Axel will never happen again in any cycle. He's a one time thing in all universes, a blip of a moment in comparison to what Torch has gone through. Yet he can't help but find that the most wonderful thing about me, and hopes that maybe if he keeps me with him in Trench he will feel less alone every cycle, and maybe get Clancy back faster.

So he sneaks into DEMA in order to find Axel and take him back to Trench, maybe even take Clancy back to Trench if he was able to. After finding Axel alone, he attempts to convince the other to go back with him. Axel, having already been inducted as a Bishop alongside Clancy (now Nova) is terrified that Torch is even there, and at firsts refuses to think he can escape.

As he grows unsure, however, Nova seizes Axel's body before he can choose to go. Using Axel's body, Nova kills Torchbearer by breaking his neck in his/Axel's hands. Upon his death, Axel has a mental breakdown and Nova finds himself also regretting the impulsive decision to kill him. In his heart, he still loves Torch just as much as Axel does. They both are mourning him, in a way, and seeing Axel so broken over their lover's dead body was enough for him to decide to do something about it.

So, Nova experiments with the idea of seizing in a more scientific way. He eventually creates a way to seal the remaining human consciousness/soul of Torchbearer into his body and tied him into a vessel kept alive by Smearing Ink and seizing pressure. In his mind, however, Torch was still there. Barely and somewhat nonsensical, somewhat shambling over anything else, but he was there.

Torchbearer becomes a zombie, body frozen in a state of death and his mind working to recognize Axel as Axel, and nothing else really mattered so long as hew as there. Axel clings to Torchbearer - now Corpsebearer as I call him in this AU - and has an attachment to him a child might their favorite doll or pet.

Axel feels to blame, viewing it as having killed Torch with his own hands despite being seized. Nova was fine to encourage that blame, pushing more on Axel as well. Axel clung to Corpsebearer now, keeping him once more as a lover and friend in an otherwise dark and isolated world with Nova.