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thefourchimes · 6 days

Note

Can you tell me more about the Four Chimes AU?

What paths did you originally have planned for Robin? I wanna see how close my own ideas are lol :D :D :D

And tell us more about the Chimes themselves please? Like what are they like? What kind of abilities do they have? I may need some ideas for a fight scene... hehe

so. four chimes au my beloved. the reason why my url name is the way it is, even when im an encanto centered blog AHSFUIAHSF but yeah, here we go then! also, finn mentioned you can send him asks too, he would love to answer you about this as well yeye

anywho, lore dump time! made with a tag team between me and finn

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Can you tell me more about the Four Chimes AU?

the four chimes verse is essentially an amalgamation of my want—need—for badass max, max angst, elumax angst, just general party and co angst, apocalypse four shenanigans, several unexplored character interactions and dynamics, the four horsemen of the apocalypse concept, and everything else that comes with this plus things i wasnt able to mention its very self indulgent ngl

but yes, it's about the apocalypse four (max, patrick, fred, and chrissy) and how they get turned into the upside down four horsemen of the apocalypse aka the four chimes of catastrophe by vecna, and they become his way of furthering chaos and destruction in hawkins, while also using them to get rid of his thorns aka the party and co

nobody's having a fun time lol

i've already got a lot of it planned out, i just need to write it lmao asufhaishdf

its funny because this all started when finn sent an ask to his friend about how the four victims of vecna are paralleled to the four horsemen of the apocalypse

on top of me already thinking about this, i saw the ask and pretty much ran with it

also, here's a bonus just for you! the following are the arc names of the og four chimes au (and technically still the general arc names regardless of the sub aus, tho ofc with some differences here and there):

pre-shattering

during catastrophe - the four chimes

during catastrophe - contact to familiarity

during catastrophe - jailbreak

during catastrophe - void dark

during catastrophe - escape the dark

during catastrophe - resonance

during catastrophe - the end

post-apocalypse

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What paths did you originally have planned for Robin? I wanna see how close my own ideas are lol :D :D :D

so robin is very feral yes AHSIFUHASf

im pretty sure i explained it a bit before but robin got hit by an arrow that was meant for nancy in the ciquest au, and because of nancy, she's able to find the will to fight back against the infection instead of succumbing to it, making it her own

One and the chimes sees how she's evolving and don't like it, so lence's suggestion of getting nancy takes priority, and so it happens

nance becomes quest and now the battle is on

robin is obviously devastated and the gang is slightly in shambles because of how much nancy brings to the table, and now she's gone—no, worse, she's being used for the other side

so robin steps up to the plate in multiple ways, trying her best to fill the void nancy was forced to leave behind

the burden on her is so heavy considering she got a power she technically never expected to have nor wanted, but now it's on her to make the most use of it

she usually questions why it was her who was in this situation and literally not anybody else who she thinks could definitely do better

lots of questions and wondering for her

now, unlike with renegade, she doesn't lose herself technically, but she gets close, like a lot

though should i mention that there was a little kidnapping that happened? the person who was kidnapped in question being someone who is very important to robin and may have caused a some strain and conflict for her and the chimes?

yeah, the chimes kidnapped steve to lure robin to them so that they can take her down

it was conquest's idea :)

robin was very much not happy about that btw

lots of things happen and as said, robin was very much close to losing it so many times but she doesn't for a couple of reasons

renegade is a completely new take and direction of ciquest and just four chimes in general, and im so interested in seeing where it goes, so very interested <333

i feel like im not able to tell robin's full story here, both because we want to keep some things hidden and also because my brain is kinda not working rn AHSFUHASF mb on that one

but yeah, that's generally it, tho if you got more questions, feel free to send an ask to either me or finn, and if we remember something in particular, we'll make sure to mention it

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And tell us more about the Chimes themselves please? Like what are they like? What kind of abilities do they have? I may need some ideas for a fight scene… hehe

here's the longest part because...lore dump yes

the chimes our beloveds <33

so the chimes. in our 68600 messages (as of the moment) of a four chimes dump, we've built up the characters and personalities of the chimes, and somewhere in this thread is the scattered information on them

now, i unfortunately dont have the time and patience to go through the thread to find all of the little information, but we'll do our best to give a good rundown of their characters

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here you go with the characters and personalities first:

famine

wields throwing knives

very loyal to One (meaning he gaslit her so much for that loyalty to come to be, a consequence of being his first chime)

wants to be the leader because she thinks (and is gaslit to think) that she deserves it (One really likes to cause discord between his chimes)

having no prior connection to the main gang—or thorns as they call the gang—besides eddie who is dead and a spectre here, so she's the one who has the least moments of "remembering their past life" before

is very brutal and ruthless and likely the one the gang got the most injuries from in a general sense

death

wields a large scythe

my secret blorb

most likely to actually defy One, and fun fact, he has an au called the runaway au where he, a chime in the middle of the battle between the upside down and right side up, got to run and escape from One before certain things happened, which then causes a chain reaction in this au ofc

he's a coward, and this plays a lot into his actions and interactions

technically had a connection with nancy in the gang, but with conquest here, it gets harder for him to connect, but robin actually steps up to the plate here

war

wields a sword

is the most balanced out of everyone when looking at his loyalty and his defiance to One, in the middle of the pack in that sense

his past life of abuse shows up a lot when it comes to One, so he tends to throw others under the bus to not get caught in the crossfire (not that he wants to do this, but he also doesnt want to gain One's ire)

just generally very chill, the most chill out of every one here

is the medic of the team because of how he's the personification of war

has a connection with lucas in the gang, so that's something that gets him to "remember" some stuff in a way

pestilence

wields bow and arrows

finn and mine's blorb

leader in og, former leader in ciquest/conquest

if you can only see the rambles we have on her…it will take days to get through

will take the bullet for the other chimes when it comes to One's ire

vec has a tighter hold on her because she's max

literally connected with everyone, will have a lot of moments where she feels familiarity (and will subsequently get punished for it later)

second most gaslit by One in a way, which is big oof

conquest

wields a sawed-off shotgun

the leader in ciquest/conquest aus

very protective of all the chimes and especially lence

vec also has tighter hold on her because she's nancy

last one to fall, was suggested by lence to be taken

more aware of things than the other chimes, but still completely controlled by One

same case as lence, but even more so considering she's been there since the start of it all (does her best to take most of lence's punishments as her own when One goes after them)

gets very hyperfocused with robin (vaguely aware the thorn makes her weak in some sense but quest doesn't care), but is frustrated she cant hurt her too much because lence will get hurt too (and maybe another reason deep down, but she doesnt acknowledge it)

all of them

they're all dog coded

One can summon them/call them whenever and its shown through the shivering cold in their necks, like what happens with will

One wants them to be just the way he wants them, meaning the way they died and got transformed into chimes must be how they are no matter what (this includes clothes, hair, weapons, and everything in general)

the only new addition he accepts them to have are new scars :')

the chimes have such a complicated relationship, but at the end of the day, post-vec, they love each other

note for them individually: there's a lot more that i want to add but my brain is blanking a little and i am probably forgetting some things, but here are some of the important things to note (remember this is incomplete to everything we wanna add ASFHUIASFh)

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some relationship notes (by pairs, groups are another story)

min clashes with death when it comes to lence, but otherwise are fine with each other, neutral in general but are connected as the first two chimes of One

min and war are not quite friends, more distant than friends but closer than allies… (very interesting when you note how they were in their Before)

has a very one-sided antagonistic rivalry with lence, especially when it comes to the leadership position (this changes a bit when quest is in play as she's the leader, but there's still the rivalry with lence despite not being leader in ciquest/conquest), will be very callous in a way with her, but they actually work well together, especially as the similar twin concepts of famine and pestilence

quest is able to take min's bitterness mostly in a stride and keeps her in check from being too antagonistic when it comes to leadership roles and just generally (helps because quest understands them in a way, though she doesnt understand why she does)

death and war are more or less chill with each other, most cordial relationship out of every single chime relationship and the least tension filled, just vibing so real (though war knows death is a coward and death knows that war knows it)

death and lence are surprisingly close, only second to quest for lence (and death too technically, which is inspired by their Before), this relationship is due to the fact that in canon, max got to see and technically interact with chrissy, patrick, and nancy, but never with fred, so we saw it and ran with it and now they're close here

death and quest are more or less okay with each other, and their Before helped them understand each other better, unlike the other chimes' Before affecting their relationships in another way

war and lence are complicated, since war throws lence under the bus the most (especially in og) to avoid One's ire, and lence understands why, because of her own Before (and it doesnt help that she takes bullets for the other chimes), but they're both fine more or less

war and quest are similar to min and lence with the similar concepts, war and conquest, fire and lava, war follows quest to the T (just like he does with lence in og but more so here with quest), and they work well together because of their similar concepts

lence and quest are the closest out of everyone, helped by their Before and their instincts with each other, confides with each other a lot and are just helping each other no matter what, tho ofc this comes with the consequence of One seeing this "weakness" of theirs and using this bond between them to punish them when he sees fit

although here's a note about this too: finn said "honestly tho their relationships r So complicated its hard to capture in a few sentences", and i agree, what you just read is just some general thoughts on their relationships, but god is there so much more to them all, and if we want to really show you the relationships in full, we would have to ramble it all out ASHUFIUASHF but yeah

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here you go with their abilities:

famine

knife throwing, very fast and precise

the fastest of the chimes

can cripple the energy and power of a person

takes down the food supply and wilts crops

can take the energy and vitality of a being and/or object

death

scythe proficiency

is the slowest of the chimes

everything related to death

teleportation through the shadows

summon bone beings

forming shadow tendrils kinda

exudes the ambiance of the end of life, striking a deep sense of fear

war

fireeeee

flame sword, very proficient with swords

second fastest of the chimes

use the molotovs and flamethrowers against the gang because fire for real

hot skin, literally

can cause a sense of crisis and rage in those near

lence

causes sickness (through arrows) and disorientation of people (through aura exuded)

poison arrows

has a balisong (one she had as max—this is an hc we have) and uses it as an extra weapon

second slowest of the chimes

infect people to insanity or to do her bidding

also wilts flowers and plants in general

aura vision (she's blind because of her interrupted transformation due to el but she can see the sort of "auras" of beings, especially the upside down ones)

quest

gun proficient (obviously)

very precise shots

her gun can either fire in a scattered way like a shotgun or only one bullet at a time, it depends on quest herself

lava (we were thinking mix of fire and earth for conquest, hence lava)

also hot skin, literally

in the middle of the fast and slow spectrum

can summon different types of guns, smaller guns takes less energy for her actually, but One doesn't like that so she doesn't do it much, if at all

all

sort of intangibility (only works when they're full on chime mindset, if their anchor selves start waking up and breaching the surface, they become vulnerable and the intangibility doesnt work)

connected to One's power

summoning their weapons

connected to their hounds (their horses)

faster healing

technically immortality (as long as One is around)

and bonus!

robin

connected to lence, draws power from her

trying to infect her even more causes robin to grow stronger and lence to grow weaker (this is important to note heheheh)

means she's a bit more feral though (she gets close to losing herself but doesnt fully)

becomes more durable and stronger and the best at dealing with the chimes in the long run

also faster healing

another note: i am very sure i forgot some things so yeah, assume this list is incomplete AHSFIUHASF but thats what we can remember off the top of our heads

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anywho, yeah! that's pretty much a lore dump and a half, except i also know its not complete and there's still so much more we want to say but are unable to mention it for several reasons

but maybe those are asks for another day (wink wink, go check out @lumaxramblings' askbox too yesyes)

thank you for the ask! and i hope this helped with the renegade au yesyes <33

see ya around

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paigelts05 · 1 month

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Raha Salib [FNAF AR, Renegade AU]

https://www.deviantart.com/paigelts05/art/Raha-Salib-FNAF-AR-Renegade-AU-1032307064

Published: Mar 17 2024

CK animatronic maintenance and R&D Robotics contract with Faz Ent has ended, but their stories are far from over.

Raha holds the coveted title of most normal person at CK animatronic maintenance. She's not the daughter of some Faz Ent scientist (that's Anna), nor is she the childhood friend of one of Faz Ent's home-base IT and technician team (that's Steve), she didn't get posessed by a malicious entity either (that's Ness), and she doesn't have any relatives who almost died working at Freddy's in the 80's (that's Dan).

Whilst Luis and Mark come close to being normal, Luis has a crush on Ness and when she was kidnapped back in 2021, he drove himself insane trying to save her. And as for Mark, if it wasn't for his dyslexia, he'd have probably hacked every government organisation by now.

Raha has never driven herself to insanity, nor does she have some super advanced talent. She's just a skilled roboticist who Anna hired at face value who suffered a head injury between her interview and hiring, ... And had to fight against a mind controlled and posessed Anna, Mark, and Steve during the Adelaide incident a few years later.

The bar for normal is low, ok.

After the incident, she kept on doing her work as usual. The more mundane stuff, such as finding out that Ness had been kept in her apartment by William so grabbing her when she showed up to collect a box William jad made her order, and helping Ness move into Luis's house because Ness and Luis had been a thing for a while at that point and Ness had become terrified of being alone were the main things she'd cite as 'normal stuff', alongside sometimes having to punch a robot whilst having to drill the casing off.

After Ness vanished without a trace, she was the maintenance firm's main grounding rod of normal, because Luis was driving himself insane trying to find Ness, Anna was terrified, thinking that maybe her own familial ties to former Faz Ent scientists was what got Ness kidnapped, Mark was freaking out because of the masks and what if his mask wound up with him getting spirited away, and Steve was terrified that he was next as he had been posessed by Adelaide. Raha was the only one able to keep a level head. She couldn't stop Luis from going insane, but she was able to save everyone else.

After the Breach, Raid, and Ruins incidents were all over, if you asked Raha, she'd say that things were back to normal.

Because everyone was now here again. Everyone was still alive. This is her normal.

And she's still rather talk about the Adelaide Incident, Breach, Raid, etcetera than talk about her parents; they're not bad (well, her pops is a little bit backwards and senile, but her mum's great), but talking about them and especially how they met just makes her cringe.

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renegade-diamonds · 4 days

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finn wanted to pass along a message:

"anyway, i'm going to guess that you think our dms are full of interesting convos and shattering realizations and brilliant snippets.

and you'd be right, partially, because all that does happen.

however. there is also this."

JKLFDSJKHBDVFSBLKHDBJILSAFJBLIDJFND

Lmao, where's Conquest with the spray bottle when you need her.

May I interest finn (is that lumaxramblings? lol) and you in some Renegade AU memes (that are totally canon btw)

Renegade hyping up Robin to go fight some Chimes (cause girl's gotta eat)

RobRene trying some of that five-star Gordan Ramsay-style Chime essence for the first time.

How I visualized the Max/Renegade argument that happened in chapter 3 hehe.

Renegade fussing over El/Will because they are babies that must be protected.

The vibes that RobRene's got going on.

Renegade when Vecna shows up in Robin's dreams.

I got so many more too lol.

#ronance #lmao #four chimes au #renegade au #Renegade!Robin #Conquest!Nancy #Pestilence!Max #Famine!Chrissy #lumaxramblings #thefourchimes

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megamindsupremacy · 7 months

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The man does not remember much about himself from before. A yellow cape. A black cowl. Himself, a radiant ball of sunshine. It does not feel real, anymore.

A Dick Grayson gets slammed over the head with a hammer fic <3

#mads posts #mads ao3 fics #dick grayson #renegade AU #drabble

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everydarkcorner · 2 years

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I am in a committed relationship with unnecessarily dramatic lighting. 🧡

And yeah, I’m back to drawing my “Robin never escape the apprentice arc and now he has long hair and takes Slade’s dick on the regular” AU. 😏

Full “impolite” version on AO3 and Pillowfort.

#sladick #sladedick #sladin #slade/dick #sladewing #never escaped au #renegade au #my art

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artanogon · 1 year

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first attempt at recreating ambiance from our akatsuki cyberpunk au with @quextionmarks. this track is from a key scene in itachi and deidara's relationship where they steal a moment at deidara's hideout to watch the nighttime city and get high along the way

(background music is i need you by M83)

#renegade au #sound editing #empire's chiptunes #not really a chiptune just for organization purposes #naruto #itadei #<- jic for blacklists n stuff #actually super proud of this one and we did it in a couple of hours #using software we'd never used before

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knowledgevariabledarcy · 6 months

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youtube

#renegade rambles #renegade bindery #renegade au #renegade shepard #renegade knucks #Youtube

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rapidhighway · 4 months

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Um hello do you ever make an au and then are too lazy to make an actual story so you just skip to the ending and draw that 👍👍👍 also in archie style because im obsessed and i really needed to try doing that

or whatever. Something from my au that gets rid of the paradox prism and is simply a ‘journey to alternate dimension where something went wrong’ type story

#heyy remember when i said i had a prime au #or something #heres me drawing that. or something #dropping that with absolutely no context byeee #sonic au #sonic the hedgehog #sth #renegade knucks #rebel rouge #hihihiii #by the time this happens everyithing is fone and eggmans been defeated or somethinnngg #archie sonic teaches me to draw sonic the hedgehogs head FINALLY #okay now do not question my decisios in this au bye im so fucking tired smsnccncncncn

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didyoutrydynamite · 8 months

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Cinder: Jaune, you don't have to lie to me in order to make me feel better. Face it, with these scars I'm only half as gorgeous as I once was.

Jaune: Half of 22 still makes you an 11 out of 10. I think you still look beautiful.

Cinder: *Nearly stumbles* (Holy shit that was smooth!)

#jaune arc #cinder fall #knightfall #renegade au

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lovedeltaa · 10 months

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little dump of an au me and my friend have been working on, in which everyone's life is awful

it's not fully fleshed out at all but here's a summary of tails specifically..... if anyone cares.....

#sth #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #amy rose #renegade au #<- thats the au name teehee #tails with an accidental drug addiction is among the craziest things we've come up with I think #sonic is pre-op #I will never not make sonic a trans man it's just not happening #u guys are not ready for the diabolical ass maria we're cooking #amy is a psychic #srry just spitting out whatever comes to mind that's relevant in this post #tails ties up his paralyzed tail so that it's not in the way #he's too scared to cut it off womp womp #his knee pads r cuz his balance got messed up bc of the unusable tail #poor bastard is falling over #I think that's all I got off the top of my head #bye #luc arte

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rubilune · 4 months

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My new favorite line of Renegade (the fanfic I'm writing) is:

Shoko, talking about Satoru: Sometimes the guy really had the awareness and smarts of a peanut.

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #gojo satoru #geto suguru #ieiri shoko #its fun because its true #satosugu #chapter 8 is being a pain in my ass #Renegade au

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thefourchimes · 17 days

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Hiii, just wanted you to know I posted the little AU of an AU fanfic I asked about for your guys' Four Chimes story. I really hope I did it justice!

Also, I've never used the 'inspired by' thingy on AO3, so I hope I did it right lol

Have a wonderful day :D

heya there!!

so, fun fact, i actually saw and read it as soon as you posted it

it was around 4 am for me (and yes my night owl self was still awake at the time), and i'd argue i was the first one to read it, even if i wasn't the first to kudos it AHHAHA

i was supposed to sleep by then when i got the notification for it, but once i saw it, i immediately opened it and spent the next hour going insane, so in the end i passed out at around 5 am

i wanted to send a comment during that time, but decided to wait when i was more coherent and less sleep deprived (plus i had a presentation i needed to do in a couple hours then and having zero sleep for that would have had me crashing and burning AIHSFIUAHSF)

so yes, its been about 17 hours since i first read it, and throughout the day, i've been rereading it multiple times when i got some free time from my classes and requirements

and i have many many thoughts <3

i'll try to send those thoughts in the actual comment section of the fic, tho it might take a bit, but it will be there, so see ya there

oh and the inspired by feature works! no worries

tysm for the ask and for the fic!! hope you have a wonderful day too! <333

#it isnt obvious in what i answered here but #i was genuinely going insane when i read it #i was basically incoherent #it was wild #<3 #ronance #st au #four chimes au #ciquest au #renegade au #<- mwheheheh

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paigelts05 · 8 hours

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Bad Deduction [FNAF, Renegade AU]

Artwork: https://www.deviantart.com/paigelts05/art/Bad-Deduction-FNAF-Renegade-AU-1046547408

Story: https://www.deviantart.com/paigelts05/art/1046548951

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55526266

Published: Apr 28 2024

This was written for Vanweek, an event hosted by hallogenrobotics on tumblr dedicated to Vanny and Vanessa. I made this as the one thing I'm planning on doing for this event, and I based it on the second day AU prompt 'bad ending', but I'm using it as a regular prompt, meaning that this is day 1's Free space and free space means Renegade AU time, because it immediately gave me ideas and allowed me to flesh out what happened between the end of the Raid and before Prelude of Ruin. So here we have a post-Raid pre-Ruin scenario, where everyone thinks things are finally going to die down, but Faz Ent is planning on kidnapping Ness in order to "regain control over Vanny". A fact that makes Sylvia's thoughts that she'll be able to go home in a few days sting just a little more.

=°•.🌹.•°=

Immediately after the Raid, Officer Vanessa Sylvia Blake's first dream is a horrible nightmare born from the little Seer's deductions. The Seer keeps trying to figure out every little detail of the megaplex, now more than ever thanks to having more information thanks to the Raid, but he manages to pull a sleeping Sylvia into his deductions too because of one ghost who had good intentions.

You see, Sylvia is posessed by Elizabeth and Gregory is posessed by Evan, and Liz wanted to help out her brother and the Seer whom he possesses, but she didn't know that it it would pull her own host into the deduction too.

Now in a mindscape born of information and deductions, Sylvia can't do anything but live through one of Gregory's Bad Deductions.

=°•.🌹 Story 🌹.•°=

°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•🌹•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°

[🌹 Worst night's sleep 🌹]

Sylvia was exhausted.

The Raid had taken a toll on both her body and mind, so as soon as she got back to her temporary accommodation and sat down on her bed, she fell asleep, still in her old, torn, and bloodied guard uniform.

Fire raged around Sylvia.

Where… Was she?

She couldn't see much at all, and couldn't hear anything over the fire alarm, but she ran towards what she hoped was an exit. All the smoke seemed to be traveling that way. Her head was too fuzzy to remember if that was the correct option or the wrong option. But she had to take that chance. Her brain felt as if it was as full of smoke as her lungs.

As she ran, she found herself running up a flight if stairs, and then she hit fresh air.

Fresh early morning air.

It was still dark.

She couldn't see the stars.

And not a person in sight.

She headed over the edge of the building, hoping to gain some bearings on where she was.

Sylvia didn't exactly know what she was seeing.

A white blob surrounded by red on the floor below the megaplex.

Why was she back at the megaplex? Why was she on the roof?

Hadn't she just left that place for good? The Raid was over now; she never had to step foot back in this place again, right?

She tried to remem-

It suddenly felt as if a huge chunk of her mind had been ripped out. Her memories were failing her. But she couldn't let that stop her.

She had to save her sister before she could leave this place.

Then once they were out, she'd be able to help Mike plan the Raid as they'd finally have proof of Faz Ent kidnapping Ness.

But something in her gut told her that there was no goal anymore.

As she kept on looking down at the shapes on the tarmack below, they made sense.

That was the Vanny costume.

'Strange, why would she just throw it off the roof? Did someone free her when I wasn't looking?'

She thought to herself as the scene below was still a blur in her mind.

She felt as if she knew that she was in denial.

She kept on looking, and noticed something she already knew would make her wish that she hadn't seen it.

The costume wasn't empty.

The mask was a smaller white blob, and she saw the distinctive bleached blonde hair; one of the many things William had forced her sister into doing was bleaching her hair.

She had already seen everything on the ground below clearly, but just didn't want to acknowledge what she was seeing.

She did not want to acknowledge what she was seeing.

Her sister was on the ground, surrounded by blood, at the foot of the fire escape.

And so was Freddy, broken beyond reasonable repairs.

Had… Freddy pushed Ness off of the roof?

Even from up here, it was clear that Ness was dead. There were no signs of breathing. Her neck was at an awkward angle. There was too much blood, and Sylvia knew what too much blood actually looked like.

Nothing short of possession would save Ness now.

She had one question on her mind.

Why?

Why did that bear kill her sister?

Sylvia couldn't will herself to move. No matter how hard she tried or how much she wanted to run down the fire escape steps, she could hardly move. The tears didn't stop falling either. She didn't know when she started crying, but she couldn't stop. And even if she could, she wouldn't. She couldn't stop shaking. The mere thought of moving made her feel as if she was going to collapse. The heat around her from the building burning below her made her feel as if she was going to burn, but even with the fire, she still felt cold.

Distant.

So very very dizzy.

A flood of memories hit her like a truck. The raid was over. This was all suposed to be over. Why was she back at the breach. Why was her sister's hair back to bleached blonde when she'd dyed it before the Raid. Why did Freddy push her sister off of the roof again. Why was she far too late to grab her like she did last time, during the Raid when William controlled Freddy into making that attempt on Ness's life?

Why was she seeing this horrid scene in front of her eyes.

Sylvia collapsed to her knees. If her sister was dead, then the past month of her life meant nothing. Everything she tried to achieve had just been ripped away. Her sister would never experience the freedom they'd worked so hard to reclaim.

She didn't care as everything faded as the fire surrounded her.

Because even if the fire escape was still functioning, she didn't see a point.

Sylvia woke up slowly. There was no scream, nor was there a moment of shooting up out of bed.

Instead, she crawled out of bed, still shaking. She slowly pulled herself to her feet, but collapsed to the floor with a loud thud. As she hit the ground, she felt her hands brush against her face. Her cheeks were burning with tears, and she hadn't even noticed.

As she tried to pull herself up again, she heard the door open.

"Is everything OK? Gregory said he heard crying and then a thud."

It was Ness. She was alive.

Sylvia tried to open her mouth to respond, but only a pained wail escaped.

Almost as if on instinct, Ness crouched down by her older sister's side and gave her a hug.

Ness didn't need to know the specifics of Sylvia's dream to know vaguely what happened: Gregory had nightmares about the Breach incident and Raid. Ness just figured that her older sister was just having much of the same.

[🌹 Explanations 🌹]

Sylvia went over to Ness, Luis, and Gregory's room for the rest of the night. As Ness got back into bed, Sylvia noticed that the laptop that stored a copy of all of the Breach incident security camera recordings was not only on, but plugged into the wall. And Gregory was sitting nearby, looking a bit nervous.

"Gregory, are you running deductions again?" Sylvia asked.

Gregory nodded.

"You don't need to. Please, let the adults handle this. I know you don't trust adults to handle stuff properly, and believe me, you're justified, but you're still a kid," Sylvia wasn't mad: she couldn't be. She tried doubly hard to make sure that her tone matched her intentions too, because she genuinely just wanted Gregory to go back to having a childhood, "Try to enjoy yourself whilst you can. Deduce the best speedrun for your favourite game or something, please."

Gregory shook his head. "What was your nightmare about?" He asked with a particular look in his eyes. One of knowing and seriousness. Sylvia knew the look in Gregory's eye: he wasn't trying to change the subject.

"I was on the megaplex rooftop, and from what I could put together, Freddy had pushed Ness off of the roof before I got there…" Sylvia replied.

Gregory nodded.

"I'm sorry," the kid mumbled, "I don't know how, but you're connected to my deductions."

"It's Elizabeth," Sylvia stated almost immediately, "you saw her during the Raid. She only starting to appear after my managers started to micro-inject remnant into me well before the Riot, and she's why I was put in therapy. She'd been somewhat dormant until the Raid. Then during it, she started manifesting more again. Then you remember, in the fight against Afton: she wanted him dead more than I did I swear, she just flat out took over and was the last push we needed to make William burn himself alive. She's really changed since the CL4 and EnTrap incidents."

"Go on," Gregory seeemd slightly confused, but also as if he understood everything.

"Basically, now Liz and I have the same sort of connection that you and Evan do, and the fact that Liz and Evan are siblings," Sylvia started, paused, and then took a deep breath before continuing, "But it's simpler than you think: Evan is just asking Liz for help with his deductions: Liz did passively observe my perspective of the Breach, and Evan really doesn't want to accidentally simulate Ness getting torn apart again."

"So how does that put you - the actual you - in my deductions?" Gregory asked, knowing that Sylvia probably already knew the answer.

"When Liz accepted to help with the deduction, she essentially just joined the deduction; simple as that. And guess who also wound up getting dragged in because her body is connected to Liz's ghost because she's possessing me: me."

Gregory was silent for a moment before he replied. "How did you figure this out?"

"I just figured it out I guess. Helps that dealing with stuff like this is my day job. I'm sure you've noticed that you just know things that only Evan should know about," Sylvia mused, she would have not been entirely sure if it wasn't for the fact that she has spent plenty of time around posessed folk and had to learn how it all worked for her job as a paranormal responder, "It's that. Well, it's a bit more complex than that, but it's basically that: we can sometimes feel each others thoughts and emotions because she lives in my central nervous system."

"Figured as much," Gregory nodded, "I keep remembering the war that Evan died in, so you knowing that Liz agreed to help with deductions and you getting dragged in as a result should have been obvious."

"You're like, ten or something, knackered from the Raid, and have been running deductions - with memory locking - instead of sleeping. I'm surprised that you actually remember who I am," Sylvia gave Gregory a pat on the head as she spoke, "get some rest, kid."

Gregory nodded as he shut the laptop and clambered into bed.

Meanwhile, Sylvia bunkered down at the side of Ness and Luis's bed.

"Aren't you going back to your own room?" Gregory whispered.

Sylvia shook her head. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep without being in the same room as my sister tonight, if I can sleep at all."

"Fair. G'night," Gregory shrugged before falling asleep.

And that left Sylvia alone again.

"Everything ok?" She heard Ness's voice.

Sylvia had to stop herself from jumping; she'd forgotten that her sister was also awake. Ness was just so quiet these days, and just how quiet she was was pretty unnerving, unnerving because Sylvia knew why and how.

Sylvia shook her head. "No, I'm not. I saw you almost die so many times during the Raid, and Liz decided to help Gregory and Evan run deductions, which dragged me into it, which made me have to see you die during that deduction."

As she had spoke, her voice had shook, starting off with a small shake, and ending with Sylvia practically in tears, barely holding on.

She didn't think too much about the silence after she had spoke until she found herself in her sisters arms. Ness had managed to sneak to her side without Sylvia noticing. That much was expected; Ness had had a trial by fire in terms of having to learn to move around silently: William had demanded perfection and had dished out harsh punishments when perfection was not obtained; inhumanely unfair, seeing as that madman had been practically piloting Ness like a meat puppet the whole time that he had controlled her for whilst at the megaplex, so he had - to put it bluntly - been punishing Ness for his own shortcomings birthed of years of inactivity. Thinking about what William had put her little sister through made Sylvia cry even more.

"It's ok. I survived everything William threw at me during the Raid, and that nightmare of yours was just one of Gregory's deductions," Ness cooed as she held her sobbing sister, "and, if William wants to possess me again, he has to do so normally. His 'alternative vector' won't work anymore."

"Alternative vector?" Sylvia asked, "like, as in VR headsets?"

Ness shook her head. "Nope," she smiled, "that old family heirloom that I thought was the whole reason why he was able to possess me in the first place. 1 - it's broken now, and 2 - all it does, well did, was reduce my resistance to possession. Our great great great grandma was a medium who was resistant to possession so getting posessed hurt more, so she made it to help her help ghosts better and not be in agony so much, but cos it was made so so long ago, before anyone started to bother understanding ghosts, it had a bunch of complications. Like being tied to our bloodline because the use of it inadvertantly filled it with remnant - which GGG Gran did not know about either. So, it was only really useful to William because I already had a blood tie to it and a low possession resistance. It basically let him slip out of the headset he was hiding in and into me without causing the tell-tale pain that getting posessed by Mr I-got-springlocked-three-or-more-times would cause."

"So that's why when it happened to Cassey, she passed out, but when it happened to you, all you felt was pain in your eyes from where he jumped from the headset to you," Sylvia mumbled.

"That's right!" Ness nodded, "and that's why I was in pain when he tried to possess me during the Raid."

Sylvia started to shake. She briefly remembered how she felt when she had been posessed: she had been the second. Between Jeremy and Cassey. To think her sister had gone through such pain? After all this? Sylvia found her cheeks drenched in tears; she couldn't stop crying.

"I just made it worse didn't I…" Sylvia heard Ness mumble before her little sister sighed, "well, I guess I'll just have to keep you company untill you go back to sleep."

Sylvia didn't remember when she nodded off, and she didn't remember if she'd had a dream or not. But her back and butt ached from sitting on the floor all night. She panicked for a moment until she saw Ness still sitting beside her, asleep, breathing, and Sylvia only then realised that she was leaning on Ness.

As she pulled herself together and thought about the day ahead, Sylvia thought to herself, "just a few more days in this cursed town, just gotta get through the paperwork and questioning, and we'll all be able to go home."

°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•🌹•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°

@vanweek2024

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