#WHAT CAN I SAY I POPPED MY CONCERTA BEFORE BREAKFAST AND HIT MY FLOW

[wyldblunt]

[GRIPPING MY HEAD AND GROANING, OVERCOME WITH VISIONS OF TORMENT] thinkign about. glyndwr, champion of vlast,

my first thought was "vlast lives au" but it doesn't even have to be that. it can be that he WAS always meant to be vlast's champion but ... well. sucks. and actually he probably wouldn't even know bc he doesn't remember his dream/wyld hunt at all (and if he DID know it would drive him into a delirious hateful breakdown bc over the years he has developed a phobia of one day remembering his wyld hunt, or finding out that everything in his life HAS been in service of a forgotten hunt whether he meant it to be or not. he does not want to know.)

i have already been kicking around the idea of glyn having this. very very bad habit, after PoF, of prowling the mists kind of voyeuristically looking in on other timelines (alan heavily disapproves of this and worries about him a lot, merrit hates it and worries about him a lot, rytlock thinks it is a really bad idea but still got tricked into giving over some tips, canach hates it but won't bring it up bc they are both so fiercely independent that sometimes it means they mutually fail to do things like, uh, "Talking About My Needs, Opinions, and Feelings in Regards to Our Relationship, Lest I Infringe Upon Your Will"). he thinks about vlast a lot. he thinks about rytlock's fuckup a lot. he knows, obviously, that sulking around peering into smudgy windows between realities hoping you get a glimpse of a timeline where things went better is an astonishingly bad idea.

(i mean, like, what would you even do if you found one. kill that glyndwr and steal his life? ha ha ha! that's, that's wacky. you wouldn't do that.)

and maybe one day he looks through a rift and sees himself with vlast. shining as brightly as alan does with aurene. infinitely stronger, OBVIOUSLY stronger. not just accepted by the world but beloved, TRULY thought of as a hero (because he's never been that to tyria, no matter what he does — alan is the hero of tyria. glyndwr is a necessary evil, a weapon that makes everyone uncomfortable but is too valuable to set aside. he jokes about it all the time. because he thinks about it all the time.)

maybe he keeps coming back to that window. maybe he sees that he's still WITH alan in that timeline. maybe he sees so much less death, there. so many more victories. how can there not be, with another dragon on your side?

but maybe he doesn't see merrit. or canach, for that matter. maybe the lorelei he sees at alan's side isn't the same, in ways he feels discomfited by.

maybe one day he gets spotted. he knows better, but he can't help speaking. maybe he asks about canach.

and glyndwr, champion of vlast, barely remembers. it takes him a second; when he finally makes the connection, he seems a little amused. "oh, canach. that wayward secondborn — the one i put down in southsun."

(in glyn's timeline, after all, it was alan who handled all that — and he'd always rather put someone in handcuffs before he puts them in a box. not like glyn.)

(in glyn's timeline, after all, he was insulted that the thing even came across his desk — a karka infestation? for fuck's sake. as if he didn't have better things to do.)

(in glyn's timeline, after all, they've even joked about it, laying in bed — "it's a good thing it WASN'T you, dear. we would have just killed each other!" ha, ha —)

this is when he should have left. especially when he already wants to leap on his doppelganger and strangle him to death, because at every moment he's seeming like less a mockery of everything that's gone wrong in his world and more a mockery of every way he's managed to better himself.

but, as always, glyn can't help himself. he has to ask about merrit. he has to. her absense has been so conspicuous, every time he's stopped to spy on this world (and how many times has it been now? a dozen? more?).

now glyndwr, champion of vlast, does not look amused. now he's the one asking questions. he's asking what glyn means by that. he's asking about maguuma. he's asking, again and again, with increasing violence, what year it is, in glyn's tyria, how long is it after the mordrem campaign, how did you manage to get them all out—

maybe this is when glyndwr starts running. (we've said it already. glyndwr, champion of vlast, is infinitely stronger, obviously stronger.) maybe he's lucky he's spent this long slipping in and out of the mists — he can navigate just a little better. he still knows better than to lose time by looking back.

(i mean, what do you think he would do. kill you and steal your life? give up the one he has, the one that's so much better than yours?)

(the thing is, you would. the throne of a dragon champion, acceptance at last, unfathomable power — you would throw all of that in the mud and tread on it without looking down, for your son.)

(and he's you.)

maybe glyndwr, champion of vlast, is still catching up. maybe glyn can hear him gaining, can tell what he's planning, can calculate already that he'll be caught in moments at this rate, and there's probably no choice but to stop and face him—

(i mean, what are you going to do? kill him and doom his timeline, just to protect what's yours?)

(the thing is, he would.)

(and you're him.)