[Open] Canon Update & Catch-all!

[fiddlestick]

Who: Elliot & OPEN!
When: January 4th
Where: Mirror house & around Aefenglom
What: Canon update/Catch-All!
Warnings: Major spoilers for Trails of Cold Steel 3 afoot! Also CW mentions of death.

I. Mirror House
[Elliot didn't visit the mirror house very often. Aside from the times of new arrivals or checking to see if someone's left, there wasn't much reason to be there. But today, he felt compelled to go, by reasons he couldn't explain. Without really thinking about it, he wound up in front of mirror that was decorated in assorted carvings of music related items and his beloved friends. And still without thinking, he reached out to touch the reflective pristine glass.

And all of a sudden, came a whirlwind of memories playing on the glass. They start off nice: leaving home to go on tour, releasing his first record, concerts, seeing Rean again, getting the group chat going. But just as pleasant as the memories start, they quickly go darker: the truth of Hamel, the dark dragon, Azure Siegfried, the Curse, Angelica, the Gral of Erebos, the Courageous exploding, Millium-

Elliot, who was completely transfixed on the memories, collapses as soon as the glass goes back to normal. Once more, he's aware that he's back in Aefenglom. Not in the hellish Gral, watching friends die and knowing what was now spreading across Erebonia. They were all in danger, except now he was-]

N-No..! Not now, I can't...why?

[Whatever he means is lost, because he's completely overcome with sobbing. He'll probably be like this a good long while. Anyone bonded with him will feel waves of grief and fear coming from him.]

II. Aefenglom
[Eventually, Elliot's able to collect himself enough to pull himself off the floor and leave the mirrorhouse. From there...well, he doesn't know where to go. He doesn't want to go back to his house, how do you go home to your friends who are none-the-wiser and tell them such horrible news? He really didn't feel up to that just yet. Nor did he feel like continuing on his daily schedule, there was no way he could focus on music or anything else.

So eventually, he decides to just...wander. He starts walking, not even really thinking about the direction or where he'll go. If you pass by him, it's clear he's barely paying attention to his surroundings as he slowly walks. It doesn't even seem to register to him that it's freezing out. Or maybe you'll catch him standing still, near the river or the ocean, simply staring - completely lost in thought, sometimes quietly talking to himself ]

...What am I supposed to do now...?

[No matter how many times he asks himself that, he can't seem to find the answer]

[OOC: Elliot's been canon updated to the end of CS3! Clearly, it had a happy ending. ]

Comments

II.

[overworker]

[By the water, a small girl washes her hand in the river. There's a bit of blood on her shirt, but it seems she's cleaning the wound now. She's not really in a place to calmly perform magic right now. She wouldn't have noticed there was anyone here if she hadn't heard him.]

Oh... Elliot...

[She doesn't know what to say, and in the end it seems like she decides just-- not to.]

[fiddlestick]

[He hadn't been anticipating to see Towa out here, and for a moment he's a little stunned what to do. Does she remember too? How long was she here? He hadn't been aware]

Towa...?

[He's a little like a very cautious animal, trying to figure out what the situation is but also having trouble focusing enough to get a fair assessment. But when he sees that bit of blood, his eyes go wide and he goes pale. Under normal circumstances, anyone would be able to tell that's not a serious injury. Nothing to fret about. But when you just got through seeing your friend die covered in blood- panic kicks in]

-- H-Hold up! You're bleeding! Are you alright?!

[overworker]

[Under normal circumstances, the answer would be a very simple one. Of course she was fine, it’s just a small cut from a piece of broken china. However, when he asks her if she’s alright, she temporarily locks up.

Despite her best efforts, her eyes water and her lips tremble.]

I—

[Towa quickly moves to rub her eyes but it doesn’t stop the water from welling up again.]

...A-Angie is... and George...

[Her voice is soft and brittle like glass on the verge of shattering. Her hand comes out of the water and most of the blood is gone, but the cut is still here. The wound is still there.]

How can.... how can I be...?

[fiddlestick]

[Angie and George....

The words hit his ears, and realization dawns on him. There's no way she'd be crying over them right now, unless...]

You.....You remember it now too, don't you?

[overworker]

[The only thing she can do is nod. Her throat feels tight and dry. The more she thinks about it, the more her chest hurts. Those memories could easily be the last she’d ever see of her best friend. And George...]

...how... could I be... so stupid...?

[All that time, she’d been at his side. And she’d never known. Never would have believed it— didn’t want to believe it, even when the reality was right in front of her.]

I’m such an idiot...

[fiddlestick]

[Despite all his grief and pain, it still hurts to see Towa tear herself up like this. He reaches out, putting a hand on her shoulder. He's sniffling himself]

H-Hey...you're not an idiot...

[This must be about George. The pain of betrayal was still fresh for him too, but George was so much closer to her]

None of us suspected him...you couldn't have known.

[overworker]

[As much as she struggled against the reality, she'd seen with her own eyes what George's decision was. What he was determined to accomplish. And it had been horrible.]

But now... the Courageous... Prince Olivert...

[There is no small list of things that had gone wrong, or were taken from them.]

...Angie...

[Towa closes her eyes. They'd parted so casually. She had never imagined that it would be last time they'd be able to meet like that. Her voice cracks and she scrubs at the tears more adamantly.]

They're all gone.

mirror house!!! kill me

[usurpers]

[ eren had been through this once before to know what was calling him again. the mirrors. would this be the day his shattered? did he leave enough information behind? he thought of it as he walked the evening’s dusk to find his own mirror, taken and too concentrated to see if anyone was there, or if anyone entered afterwards. all he could hear was the twisted, disjointed sound of voices that weren’t quite voices, ensnaring him back to his mirror— decorated with skulls, the line of a vertebra over the mirror’s head, copper chains and iron wings.

the ride was a crazy one, less than minutes of events in real time, nearly a decade wandering his father’s memories, and even after it began to settle in eren now, he couldn’t . . . feel anything. the realization that he’s made his will chug into a large (massive) step into reality, that he’s freed ymir, that paradis will be safe— he knew better than to sing before the full picture was painted. just because he’s seen glimpses doesn’t mean he knows what happens in between. that’s, perhaps, what he felt as he took a step back and eyed the reptilian claws of his changed legs.

it was an accomplishment, the one he fought for, but he wasn’t done yet. this was only the beginning. he’s never . . . seen that high before. how big was he? did questions like that really matter when—?

the sound of sharp sobbing makes his ears flick, and something far larger hits him. his bond. his bond, this close, churning in emotional pain when he was right there. he almost didn’t realize it— but he puts his own things aside, for now (it was rather easy to when you’re still reeling and it feels like you haven’t actualized yourself), the dragon makes his way over to bright ginger hair, calls his name, and crouches beside him, hand finding his shoulder and arm-wing membranes covering his back like a blanket. ]

Elliot, [ no amount of grip would make things better, but he’s felt this feeling before. he’s felt it tear him up again, and again, and again.

nothing anyone would say would make it go away. eren’s eyes only watch with heavy consideration and sympathy, before sitting down with him permenantly. he didn’t have to say anything. ]

lets backflip into hell together

[fiddlestick]

[Like Eren, Elliot hadn't realized his Bonded was also in the mirror house. At first it'd been because he was too transfixed by being called. Then, it was because the waves of pain deafened any quieter emotions coming from the other. It was like being drowned - impossible to notice anything else around you while you're struggling yourself.

It's only when Eren crouches by him and puts his hand on the shoulder does he realize he's not alone. The feeling of a wing on his back like a blanket, the familiar smell, the calming feeling that came with being near a bonded - Eren was here. He doesn't know how Eren came so quickly, but he was in no state to question it. Even with a lifesaver here, the waves of grief were still tumultuous.]

E-Eren... [And so the crying doesn't slow. It probably won't slow for awhile. But he knows Eren will need some kind of explanation to why he's crying pathetically on the floor.]

I....I got memories of being home. [Like Eren had once, a few months back] It...E-Everything went so wrong.

[usurpers]

[ his promptness will be relevant, but perhaps, not in the immediate moment. it could wait. as he listens and keeps his arm there, feeling all this grief ram into his skull— he doesn’t know if he’s “used to it” (hard to), or if he was so wrapped up in his own that this . . . felt mild, somehow. it wasn’t, of course, but eren sees and feels this very loss not as an inhabitant, but someone with the world in their hand and just— gazing from the outside.

even though he’s here, physically, emotionally, he’s a touch detached. not so much that his end of their bond goes abnormally mute, no. it just feels like elliot’s feelings are going somewhere, at least getting sucked up, but they don’t bounce back. they disappear into a void that’s simply too deep to return from. things weren’t going to be alright. things weren’t okay. he was on the opposite end of the line where everything was fucked and not saved. he almost thinks, for a second, of what his friends back home were feeling the second he remembers, but he discards the thought. it doesn’t even matter, anymore.

almost awkwardly, eren’s wing shifts, as if he wanted to do a little more and didn’t know how, or what. the wing moves back and remains, and after silence between the other’s choked sobs, ]

What happened?

[fiddlestick]

[Perhaps lucky for Eren, Elliot is busy experiencing such raw grief to fully notice what's happening on the end of his bonded. It's not that he doesn't care, it's just when you have an injury that hurts so much, it's nearly impossible to notice anything else around you.

At the question, it takes a few times of him swallowing to even muster words. What didn't happen? At least it's easy enough to know where to start.]

A-Ash...one of Rean's students, shot the Emperor. W-We didn't know why at first, Chancellor Osborne claimed he was an agent of Calvard, but there's no way that's true. He just wanted to start a war.

And then... Osborne started this ritual t-that'd end the world. Giant cryptids in large numbers started rampaging through Heimdallr. [you know, kinda like titans] Sharon and G-George, who were allies, they turned against us. George even shot Angelica, they were best friends but...but that's why no one could find her. A-And that's not even getting into what he did to Crow...

[He knows this probably doesn't make much sense to someone whose never been to his world or met half these people, but he has to keep explaining or it might never comes out. He's trembling just thinking about it all in Eren's hold]

We went to stop the ritual. They'd taken Altina, Rean's student - she's just a kid. W-We gave it everything to reach them in time. I stayed back with Jusis and Machias to help fight off Osborne's Ironbloods, including Millium who was there on their side for some reason even though she's one of us. T-Then we find out that Altina...and...her sister Millium, the reason they were born was so they could be...s-sacrifices. That's why they created them.

[It was so twisted to think about. That you would create life only with the intent to one day kill them for your own ends.]

But then...e-everything really went to hell. The Courageous showed up to help, a-and they made us watch as they blew it up along with everyone on it. And n-no matter how much they fought, the ones who made it down there couldn't incapacitate the beast used in the ritual. It was about to kill Altina, and then... [he swallows again]

M-Millium jumped down there...and tried to shield her. S-She was only fifteen and yet...s-she wanted to protect her sister and us... [his voice cracks] It didn't work - it cut right through her shields like they were nothing and killed her. Rean...lost it, and murdered the beast, and doing so, c-completed the ritual.

[He wipes his eyes with his sleeve] N-Now ... the world's going to end. A curse that caused so many tragedies, that made Ash shoot the Emperor in the first place, is now ... everywhere.

[usurpers]

[




that’s rough, buddy.

eren has to obviously let some words and their meanings go, but the gist could be filled in with the rest. more or less, at least. he listens and listens and his ears eat up every word. he feels for him, surely, and when it’s all over— eren’s reminded of bertolt when they sat atop of the trees in titan forest, and eren questioned them. all this time, betraying us, being responsible for everything that’s happened. what did you feel? bertolt only curled his arms around his legs and quietly, almost coolly replied: i felt sorry for you.

it hadn’t been the answer eren wanted, but even the answer he sought wouldn’t make a difference to him. he would still be in agony, and seething, hurting, wanting to do the worst to them for having done the worst to him— until years later, eren dismisses reiner’s fear of being tortured and slowly, slowly killed by his hand. after all . . . they were the same, weren’t they?

there’s only so much empathy eren can offer, and resonance with emotion, all while being on the other side of that playing field. relinquishing ymir’s curse, activating the rumbling— and destroying the world. eren won’t give elliot a farce; the days of cursing his enemies and those who have wronged him are far gone. his bonded lost family. everything is in chaos and he probably won’t be able to think properly for days. he feels for him because, there’s care, but if he hadn’t— he’d be turning a blind eye and moving forward, else he wouldn’t be able to. moving forward to make all those deaths count in the end or else losing them would’ve been . . . for nothing. innocent, marlian, eldian, comrade or otherwise. their weight . . . was suffocating, but he could still breathe.

the same way elliot had once done for him, eren does: he offers what he could, as a friend. a certain distance lies beneath his actions as he picks the young man up by the arms, steadies him on his feet, and keeps his wing blanketed across his back.

it was just the same story . . . in one more world. imagine if he profusely mourned for all of them? he’d be a useless wreck. consideration is in his thoughts, and he hopes elliot feels it, and that it brings him some sort of comfort the way his membranes warm his spine. they were all people. people who didn’t deserve more or less to live. they deserved to live, they fought, and they died.

may the best happen, but eren does not trap himself in wishing elliot’s group a rise in victory. on the other villainous side is a story just as mournful. thousands of them. hundreds of them. they all get eren’s consideration. ]

Let’s get you somewhere to rest. [ a pause, then: ] It doesn’t have to be your house.

[ because he knows how it is. ]

[fiddlestick]

[Elliot picks up on Eren's emotions, but they feel like the light of a distance ship on a stormy sea- so easy to miss, hard to consider too deeply. He feels the care, just like he feels the tentative detachment from it....which he couldn't fully blame him, without understanding the reasons for it. Eren didn't know Millium, or anything about his world that he didn't tell him. It was like hearing a sad story in the news, just made a touch more personal by knowing someone connected to it.

Picking him up is almost like picking up a rag doll. He's light and it's easy to move him, but there's no real strength to Elliot's own movements. He stands limply, like he might fall back down if Eren wasn't there to prop him up.

The idea of rest, though, gets him shaking his head vigorously. If he closes his eyes right now, he knows he'll see it all over again. And even worse was the idea of going home. His friends were back there, oblivious to what future awaited them.]

I don't wanna sleep. Or go home.

[He doesn't know where he wants to go, but he knows not there. Not now.]

ii.

[kivatteru]

Elliot?

[ That's his fellow musician friend right there, and he looks like he's staring straight into another world entirely that exist beyond the river waters. Wataru knows the feeling very well, after Shizuka told him in the past that he looked just as lost when he was working on violins.

Something's up, and of course he one hundred percent wants to help. ]

Are you alright?

[fiddlestick]

Wataru?

[He looks up, clearly being pulled away from this thoughts. Honestly until he had spoken up, Elliot hadn't noticed his friend there.

He hesitates at the question. There's an impulse to lie and say he's fine...but he knows there's no way he can pull that off. Not when his eyes are red from crying and everything about his spirit is down]

...No, I'm afraid I'm not.

[kivatteru]

[ Yikes, that's... serious. Wataru's quickly filled with worry at the overall negative reply. ]

Do you want to talk about it?

[fiddlestick]

Ah....

[He bites his lip. Sometimes it does help to talk about things, sure. But man. Wataru is a friend he hasn't known too long, and ... it's a lot. It's so much]

I-I don't know. I..well, the easiest way to explain it is I got some updated memories from home. And it's a lot of bad news.

[kivatteru]

[ Supposing this would be easier to talk about if they're comfortable, he sits down on the grass, then gestures for Elliot to join him. ]

How bad are they? [ They must be really bad if he caught the guy standing here dead-eyed, but he'd like a confirmation. ]

[fiddlestick]

[He sinks down to sit on the grass alongside Wataru. And boy, how does one put a scale on this one without sounding overdramatic]

...Possibly the end of the world bad?

[This is not an overstatement]

ii

[integrous]

[ Asahi may sometimes seem rude. Or uncaring. And while the former is definitely true from time to time, Asahi does care about other people. Often more than she'd like to.

So when she just sees this guy standing around there, she does notice while passing by. At first she doesn't think too much of it, more just noting it, but when she's on her way back home after doing whatever chore she was out for and she still sees the guy standing in the exact same spot doing nothing, Asahi gets a little more worried.

She glances around, but she can't see anyone who's with him. And when she steps closer, she can hear him ask himself what he's supposed to do - and it's that part that gets her to actually fully step up to him, a frown of concern on her face. ]

Hey, is.. everything okay? You were standing here earlier too.

[fiddlestick]

[Elliot blinks and comes out of whatever thoughts he was in when someone addresses him. His head shakes slightly, like he's shaking off some kind of fog that was clouding him. Glancing over, he sees it's a girl he doesn't know]

Oh...was I? [He'd lost track of time. That's embarrassing] S-Sorry, um... guess I got lost in thought there.

[Up close it's easier to see his eyes are red and puffy. He's been crying recently.]

[integrous]

[ It's definitely hard to not notice what his eyes look like. And combined with the way he was standing there and doing nothing, it just makes everything even more concerning. Being upset isn't too weird, but will he just stand here literally all day if left alone? ]

You look like you got a little more than just lost in thought. [ Maybe it's a little too blunt of a call out, but this is just how Asahi works. ] Is something wrong?

[fiddlestick]

I...

[Well, that's one way to approach it. It does help with avoiding beating around the bush. Elliot hesitates, trying to figure out how to tell someone he doesn't know. Then again, sometimes telling a stranger helps. How much worse can things get anyway?]

I got ...um, well, I guess you could call it a memory update? From the mirror house. Remembered and found out about a lot of things that happened back home. [He doesn't know how else to explain it]

It was...a lot of bad news. A-Actually, that might be an understatement.

[integrous]

[ Apparently he didn't find out many good things then, huh.

Asahi does still frown with concern, but for a moment there's almost something awkward about her. She's never been good with strangers, but she also doesn't want to abandon someone so clearly troubled. Think, what would Koyuki have done in this situation?

She glances around her before looking back at Elliot. ]

Maybe talking about it to a stranger might help. [ Especially if it's stuff related to his home world, then surely he couldn't talk about it to people he knew from back home if they are here.. ] Do you like tea? We can go get some and talk, if you want.

[ She gestures in the direction he was staring at before. ]

It's better than just standing here. And less cold.

[fiddlestick]

Ah...I'm really not sure these are the kind of troubles a stranger wants to hear.

[Which might sound questionable, but really it just means there's so much stuff. So much]

But...I-I guess it'd be bad if I got myself sick again from being outside all day. So...sure. I'll take some tea.