Month 5
[S12] Astarael the Witch Queen and Broken Histories
Day 17, Month 5, 919 | Aboard the Clockwright
(May 23, 2025)
Sav pulls those who’d known Astarael around and they discuss the memory Ashen had about her. She looked very different, with short white hair, and anyway Tyr Isendel was dead. Talith says it could possibly have happened, as there were multiple vampire houses and when he was there they were in shambles over a witch causing chaos; he thinks maybe Astarael could have resurrected Tyr Isendel. Sav pushes back on this idea, but Talith mentions he doesn’t know what year Ashen left the world before.
Speculation flies that perhaps it was from another world, or another time? They’ve all seen those rips pre-Breaking, which seemed to lead to other worlds, and talk a little about Zephyrus’s mocking words about stories that, did they really happen? Sav brings up Sal’s mural with a legend from his side of the world.
Talith talks about gods and his research discovering they were created by overwhelming emotion.
Ethan goes over his experience with Aseraphal and the Veil, and mentions anyone who enters gets an eye painted on their forehead; it’s said the Angel of Eyes can see through those eyes. He tells them about the “heaven” he found himself in when they first went through the Veil, and that it’s the promise the faithful get for after they die. Sav wonders why it’s not the case now, why the White Crown is just a nice city, but not paradise, and speculates perhaps that was part of what Danica did that pissed off the angels.
Bax brings up that Peach said Sylas said the Raven Queen is gone.
Sav brings up Speechless and asks if anyone’s seen her before, but no dice (though Sal did tell them earlier he spotted her behind Lil’lith).
[Eth & Sav] Mostly Not Dead
Day 17, Month 5, 919 | Aboard the Clockwright
(May 23, 2025)
Sav pulls Ethan aside immediately after the previous and tries to tell him that they think the angels are wrong that Danica was destroyed, since there are these stars linking them all and the constellations still exist, and there was that memory that had to have been from her (nobody else would be in love with Ethan like that, or flying with such a burning rage), so part of her must exist. He doesn’t want to hear that a part of her may be around, or that she might have pieces in each of them, he just wants to know if she’s alive or dead and if either, where. Sav cannot answer this, so he walks away.
[All] The Story So Far
Day 19, Month 5, 919 | The Cog & Sprocket
(Written)
Sav gathers all the Returned to lay out everything they know regarding the aasimar, angels, and destruction of the world. Sal contributes knowledge of the Paradox and the primordial forces of the world, including that the Weave is a shield walling out Paradox and that Time is merely a construct laid over chaos.
[Pch & Sav] One Point of Agreement
Day 19, Month 5, 919 | The Cog & Sprocket
(July 19, 2025)
Sav stops Peach in the hall and half-apologizes for upsetting Peach so much when speaking of Sylas. Peach goes into the history of Sal, his strange disappearance, how he became a legendary figure and created Alinge’s Pass, yet was also recovered by Esmund from a point right after his disappearance. Sav asks what Peach’s goals are, to which Peach has no answer but to cling to those around; Sav agrees on this. They then ask if Peach and Sal can work together on an easy, interesting storyfied version of the history Sav had gone over in the meeting a few hours before.
[Ash & Bax] Servants of the Raven
Day 21, Month 5, 919 | Endergaln
(June 6, 2025)
After spending some time in the practice yard, Ashen and Bax speak about the Raven Queen. They get into a back-and-forth as Ashen isn’t entirely clear on whether Bax literally met the Raven Queen or personally served her or if he’s speaking more metaphorically, as a priest might serve a god who’s never spoken to them, until Bax clarifies the whole situation with Bax having traded his soul for Roux’s and acted as a psychopomp for Her afterward. They speculate on the power of what must have taken her away and what happens to all the souls if she’s not there to ferry them on. Ashen, surprisingly, says there’s been many gods of death, and the changeover has varied, but he’s not ready to give up on Her yet; when asked further, he says he’s a warrior, not a scholar, go ask the nerds.
[Bax & Sal] Bigfoot vs. Hammertime
Day 22, Month 5, 919 | Outside Endergaln
(July 19, 2025)
Bax asks Sal out on a date to spar, citing that he wants to get to know him better, and what better way than on the battlefield? They trek an hour or two outside of the city and get down to business. After an initial round of some glancing blows, they pause, and Bax says he knows it can be weird and confusing that he looks like Sylas and wants to make sure it won’t interfere with their working relationship. Sal promises it won’t, though he can’t promise to like Bax necessarily. They go for another, more serious round, where Sal calls in Poppy to show her off. Bax tells Sal about his yeti, but is resistant to showing it off until Sal goads him into it. Sal plays it cool for a bit until the yeti whales on him with several punches, then knocks him back with several blows, testing to see how fast the yeti is; as fast as Sal, it seems, but not as fast as Poppy can fly. Left behind, the yeti rampages for a bit until he runs out of steam, crawls into a cave, and falls asleep.
sav-bax_seatedhug_wip02.jpg
by Priscilla Kim
[Bax & Sav] All That No One Sees
Day 25, Month 5 | The Abandoned Greenhouse of Endergaln
(June 6, 2025)
Sav suggests to Bax to try pushing through the bad memories to try and link up to Danica again; after a little resistance, he accedes, and they end up finding a quiet place an hour away from the others, to try and limit the discovery potential if the angels find them again.
Rather than yielding any promising contact, however, they just end up swapping memories, mostly traumatic on Bax’s part (of being exploded and hung by Kelwin, then his agreement to trade his soul for Roux’s out of the belief of his own worthlessness), and a random assortment of Sav’s (a fundamental realization she had early on, killing an unarmed Swan, and letting Reis Auldaran go).
Sav is horrified at what Bax has been through, having had no idea of it before (beyond the general tragedy of Aelorean’s Crossing being destroyed), and they hug. Then they realize they’re stranded for at least a few hours until a reasonable window of time passes for the angels to have tried to track.
[Bax & Sav] Emotional Landscapes
Day 25, Month 5 | The Captain’s Rest, Endergaln
(Written)
Killing time after their unsuccessful star-search, Sav and Bax wander the city, get lost, and retire to a diner to talk.
Month 6
[Sal & Sav] At Arm's Length
Day 1, Month 6 | The Cog and Sprocket
(June 13, 2025)
Sav knocks on Sal’s door and asks to examine his arm, having never seen a prosthetic quite like it before. They’re impressed at the craftsmanship of it, and Sal reveals that it was built by his wife Ori, and that the town he now calls home, Kendall’s Forge, is known for its uniting of beauty and craftsmanship, as well as its regular cycle of Returns. Sav asks if she can accompany him on his next trip home, as she’s fascinated by the sound of the place; Sal declines, as he doesn’t trust her enough yet to bring her to his wife and child. Sal learns that Sav learned magic through reverse-engineering what she found in some aasimar ruins, and that Isendel was not a friendly place to magic, but now no longer exists. Sal shares that Hark’ul also came from Lux. They speak a little on the propensity of stories to warp over time, with regards to whether the aasimar were truly any better than the angels or what the illithid would have to say about the ancient war; Sav is defensive, but begrudgingly grants the point. Then Sal threatens them against plagiarizing his arm, before offering to perhaps arrange a meet with Ori, should his wife be interested.
[Pch & Sav] Friend-fiction
Day 8, Month 6 | The Cog and Sprocket
(June 6, 2025)
Sav returns a spicy book to Peach, which had lots of notes and some journal pages with Peach’s own bits of written fic and alternate ideas. Peach is flustered until Sav reveals that they’ve read other series of the authors’, and that they thought Peach’s ideas and writing were better. Peach needs little encouragement to start talking about the ideas she’s had for stories based on her friends from Shepherd’s End; while Sav is a little weirded out by the idea of writing about real people, when Peach says that they’d change enough details and they wouldn’t use their actual names, Sav shrugs and suggests, if Peach is nervous, they could write and put them out under a pen-name. There’s lots of small publications and magazines, and Sav offers to slip a manuscript into the drop-box of one on the way to the lab. Peach is thrilled at the idea.
[Ash & Sav] Modded Shields, Modified Worlds
Day 13, Month 6 | The Practice Grounds
(June 20, 2025)
Sav catches Ashen on the practice ground and asks him for some help in testing out a modification they made to their shield. It’s been modded to extend, fan-like, from their bracer, but isn’t quite as fast as they would like, during the discovery of which Sav takes a few hits from Ashen (as they wanted). A secondary effect, that of repelling an attacker when hit, works impeccably. Afterward Sav asks some probing questions of where and when Ashen comes from, from which emerges the information that there’s a disjunction between the timeline of events that Ashen knows and the one that Sav knows; in his timeline, there were only 9 months between the breaking of the Octurne/the fall of the Tower, and the flash that ended the world, and Tyr Isendel was alive when the Tower fell. Sav states the obvious, that it seems they’re from different worlds, and asks what Ashen’s plans are now that the Raven Queen appears to be gone. He says his mission is unchanged, and as the mystery for why they were all pulled together isn’t clear yet, he’ll stay to find out.
[Hrk, Sav] Long-legs
Day 14, Month 6 | The Practice Grounds
(August 20, 2025)
Sav finds Hark’ul to time them on how fast they can go; it takes him a couple of warm-ups, but the end result is: very, very fast. They push him a bit more, taking off over rooftops and egging him to jump over the edge of a very tall building, as she’d seen them fall and land unhurt, but in a way different from how she does it. Hark’ul demonstrates by sliding and falling, and she follows in her usual way. They discuss Hark’ul’s old master a little bit, and Hark’ul says he can manipulate lifeforce as well, but not to the point of bringing back the dead; mostly enhancing himself and doing a little healing. She asks him if he’d be willing to carry around the tiny hand-sized magical cannon, since he moves real fast and seems good at reaching and covering people who need help, and the cannon, while useful, is not very fast in and of itself. Hark’ul coos at the cannon a bit until he realizes it’s not sentient.
[Ash, Pch, Sav] Sweet & Sour & Serious
Day 16, Month 6 | The Cog and Sprocket
(June 20, 2025)
Ashen brings back a cart full of undead and shows them to Peach when he runs into her, and explains that he works as a bounty hunter on occasion, killing undead for coin. Peach explains jokes and social conventions to him, until she’s overcome by the discomfort and flees, stopping to have a panic attack around the corner.
Ashen goes to knock on Sav’s door and says, “Astarael Belree. You knew her.” Sav slams the door on him and has a panic attack behind the door.
After a few seconds and a second knock, they open the door and admit that yep, they did know her on their world, and they’re going to need a drink to talk about this with him. Ashen follows them to the common room and says it makes it easier that this Astarael was from another world, and Sav says so that, what, he didn’t have to kill them? and he seems puzzled and says he doesn’t kill people just for knowing necromancers, which Sav has no reply to.
They speak on the differences, with Sav defending Astarael; Ashen says their Astarael seemed like a troubled woman but not without light, and Sav says yes, perhaps his Astarael had also been like that, but something must have been different in her conditions. They also admit that the other people they’d known from before also knew Astarael, that they’d all traveled together, but that Talith probably knew her the longest of those here; Ashen says he’ll talk to him about it, and Sav recommends leading with “I’m not going to kill you over this” because he’s quite scary.
[Sav] The Puppet Gang Rises Again
Month 6 onward | Endergaln
(Written)
Sav attempts to ingratiate themself with the street kids of Endergaln, to limited success.
[Eth & Sal] Stories, Part 1
Day 25, Month 6 | Endergaln
(September 26, 2025)
Sal and Ethan meet up to exchange stories. Sal doesn’t entirely believe Ethan’s purely factual account of what the Season 12 folks went through.
Months 7–9, 219
[Ethan] A Friendly Visit
Day 1, Month 7 | The Office of Ethan Thorne
(Written)
Goons Jack and Marco pay an informational visit to Ethan.
[Eth & Sav] Thief Takes King
Day 1, Month 7 | The Cog and Sprocket
(October 10, 2025)
Sav shows up late for a meeting with Ethan, having fallen asleep over her notes, but the meeting is just to drag her out of her studies and teach her some dragonchess to unwind. Ethan notes that she ought to learn how to adopt a less-noticeable accent, her natural one being very distinctive, and she growls that she knows that but it isn’t that easy; he gives her some tips. They chat a little about the others, mostly Sal, and Sav tells Ethan that Ashen comes from a different reality than the rest of them.
Sav confesses her frustration that there always seems to be some bigger enemy waiting in the wings. Ethan says all that stuff is beyond him — the world is bigger and weirder than he thought and he’s just a dude with a dagger — but he knows he needs to get to the Tower, and she’s got the best chance of dealing with that. He can handle people and criminals and things he can stab or circumvent, and he’ll get them there if she figures out the angel stuff. Sav spits in her hand and makes the deal.
[Bax, Hrk, Sav] Training Montage
Day 7, Month 7 | The Practice Grounds
(August 20, 2025)
Bax is there first, running over an obstacle course he’s set up, and Hark’ul shows up to run some laps. They engage in a brief spar until Hark’ul starts to lose control over himself and backs off; they discuss it a little and Bax says they ought to push themselves more, to stress-test, and Hark agrees after thinking it over a little more.
Sav shows up then, astonished at the presence of other people already there. They realized they were starting to get soft, after over a month staying in one place and not running for their life, so needed to figure out a way to not lose their edge. Bax starts running both of them through the obstacle course he built, until Sav suggests doing it live, e.g. (much like she did with Hark) scrambling over real buildings and walls. Bax doesn’t like the idea of bothering other people, but Sav is unconcerned and they end up up doing it anyway.
Once they come to a pause, Hark’ul and Bax both agree it was kind of fun and maybe the practical course could be included as part of the training regime. The three make plans to show up most days to do this together.
[Sav] A Fine Display
Month 7 onward | Ochrefeldt Tailoring
(Written)
A tailor and a mechanic form a mutually-beneficial friendship.
[Ethan] The Last Brushstroke
Month 8 | Various Endergaln
(Written)
Ethan executes an artistic triple-cross.
[Eth & Sav] Stalled
Day 11, Month 9 | The Cog and Sprocket
(October 10, 2025)
Ethan hangs out in Sav’s personal workshop they’ve rigged up while they work on Nurie’te, killing time and playing dragonchess mostly mentally (with some reference to a drawing of the boards). Sav harasses Ethan about the lack of progress on obtaining a rare tool he’d offered to acquire for them, and he harasses them about the clear lack of progress on softening their accent. Sav’s frustration with the lack of progress bubbles over, and Ethan ends up dragging them outside for some (dubiously) fresh air.
[Sav & Tal] Happy Endings, Or the Lack Thereof
Day 22, Month 9 | Endergaln
(June 20, 2025)
Talith catches Sav on the way out the door dressed quite nicely to see the opening night of a play. He’s surprised to find out they’re into drama, and brings up that he used to be a player (Sav deadpans that this makes sense); Sav in turn shares that she used to work in a theater as cleaning and crew. She invites him along for the performance, since he seems interested. They chat on the way there of their pasts with the theater and what hobbies they have outside of adventuring and trauma (it’s more of a struggle to come up with one than it should be). He asks what her happy ending is, and while skeptical of the idea, when put on the spot she comes up with the idea of journeying through the stars with a crew of close friends. He speaks of a home near a cliff with Astarael and children who grow up to have full lives, which surprises Sav and makes her a bit thoughtful.
[Sav] Little Memory
Day 30, Month 9 | The Cog and Sprocket
(Written)
Sav finally gets Nurie’te back in working order.
Months 10–12, 219
[Bax & Eth] Philosophical Differences
Month 10 | Endergaln
(September 13, 2025)
Bax and Ethan catch each other in the street and go for a drink to catch up a little. Ethan asks how Bax has been dealing with the city, and Bax asks how he deals with the city, how he adapts so quickly. Ethan expresses that it’s a rich place and it’s easy to find gold and ways to survive, with no animals or nature out to kill you; Bax returns that at least nature only kills you, it won’t pretend to be your friend and backstab you, and that most of the sorrow in their lives has come from other people. They both reveal that they are mutually paranoid and rarely sleep in beds any more. Bax says he might leave the city for a bit to get a break from it. Ethan gives him some money to explicitly spend on something for himself and says that no matter what Bax chooses, he’ll probably do the right thing for him, and that he’ll be there to help him regardless. Bax ends up spending it all on one kebab.
[Sav] New Fit, Who Dis
Month 10 | Endergaln
(Written)
Nurie’te gets dripped out in the local fashion and debuted to the rest.
[Ethan] Escorted Home
Month 10 | The Home of the Boss, Overlook Park, Endergaln
(Written)
Ethan locates and returns a runaway to the Boss.
[Eth & Sal] Stories, Part 2
Day 4, Month 11 | The Office of Ethan Thorne
(October 17, 2025)
After Sal and Peach return from their trip to Sal’s home of Kendall’s Forge, Sal goes to visit Ethan bearing annotated research in full. He’s briefly bamboozled by the gaggle of orphans manning (kidding?) Ethan’s reception desk, but eventually makes it into the inner office and delivers several books of stories and research on histories and stories that seemed to correspond with the Aelorean’s Crossing folks, one with the histories known by Lux folks, one that’s as close to true and multiply-verified of what’s happened here in this current reality, and one that collects everything to do with the deep history touched upon in Sav’s lecture way back when.
They exchange brief updates on how Sal’s trip went and Ethan’s experience with the city. Sal shares his favorite story of an apocryphal fable figure, Balfus, one of empathy and differing points of view. They make a date to meet up again in a few weeks to view a museum and the best coffee house Ethan knows.
[Bax & Pch] Kitchen Unconfident
Day 11, Month 11 | The Cog and Sprocket
(June 13, 2025)
Bax hauls back a strange horned canine-like creature from a multi-day hunt and asks if Peach can make use of it. Peach has no idea what it is, but after asking many questions, they figure out the process of the venom glands and dressing it to make it safe to eat. Bax reveals that he’s never cooked more than charring meat to a crisp to render it safe, and Peach teaches him the basics of cooking and introduces him to seasoning, to the surprise and marvel of his taste buds.
[Ethan] A Thorne of Lies
Month 12 | The Horton Home and the Bottleworks Plant, Endergaln
(Written)
Ethan finds his way to the center of a widow’s murder plot.
[Sav] Waiting for the Shoe to Drop
919–920 | Endergaln
(Written)
A hovering sense of doom and the equivalent of Waffle House (one unrelated to the other).
[Sav] Written in the Stars
919–920 | Endergaln
(Written)
Meandering thoughts on fate.
Year 920
[Ethan] Ethan/Thorne
Month 1 | The Home of the Boss, Overlook Park, Endergaln
In which there is a shift in relations between Ethan and the Boss.
[Eth & Sav] Simple Awkward Moments
Month 2 | Endergaln
(October 10, 2025)
Ethan finds Sav wandering in the streets during the rest shift and accosts her with the next move in their now purely-mental dragonchess game. Sav shows off the work they’ve done on disguising their accent, sounding a little more like a working-class Galnian. Sav vents about how this ought to be the best time of their life, but they’re just jumpy and uneasy and unable to sleep well most days. Ethan advises taking it easy and just taking a moment to savor the immediacy of the moment, of something very simple but fundamental, like a hot soup. Sav takes the opportunity to make Ethan pay for some meat skewers from a nearby meat-on-a-stick vendor, and Ethan takes the opportunity to prank the vendor by pretending to cut and run. Confusion sorted, they stop to savor the moment, chewing the overdone meat in companionable silence. After some time spent just regarding Ethan, Sav starts to go red, then pale, then runs off with a few weak words. Ethan enjoys the remaining silence and food alone.
[Sav] Wasn't Supposed to Be
Immediately after the previous, Month 2, Year 920 | Bock’s
(Written)
Sav has a crisis of heart.
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