#oc tag: erupting maw

[skybristle]

RBS > LIKES [tags appreciated!]

I DID IT. I FUCKING DID IT. im genuinely so proud of this its crazy. please please please give it your time this was a monumental effort!!!!

if anything in here intrigues you.... or you'd like to know the meaning/my thoughts.... my askbox is open :3

[arsonstick]

fuck it we post

please dont let this flop 🙏 🙏

characters by @skybristle

[thetrishtalgem]

Whumptober 2022 Day 1: A Little Out of the Ordinary

Adverse Effects || Unconventional Restraints || "This Wasn't Supposed To Happen"

Tag List: @poetic-leigh-me @writerofscribbles @whumptober-archive

Fandom: Dungeons and Dragons (OCs)

It had been a few months since the party traveled to Surtur’s Maw and closed the infernal portal that had opened there. Doing so had saved Eldrastad and the entirety of Shiro from being destroyed by a catastrophic volcanic eruption. The Emperor himself had commended the Bar Crawlers on a job well done. An innocent town was saved. An entire continent had been saved. It was, by all accounts, a complete win.

But despite that, Sylvain felt as if his very soul had been weighed down. Matukaal had felt like a crushing defeat to him. The Holy Champion of Helm had instead been relegated to hitting a rock with his sword, and even then Sylvain still managed to miss on occasion. After their battle the fire giants permitted the party first dibs on the infernal scraps the devils had left behind. Sylvain had kept most of it with himself in the bag of holding.

The war efforts showed no signs of slowing. If anything, the magnitude of battles the party faced only seemed to grow. Numinex the dragon lord continued to desecrate the entirety of Nihon, with Drakken now serving as an undead general of his. There was a growing cult within the Empire led by a powerful patron known as “The Stranger” that seemed set on bringing the Blood War between the Hells and the Abyss to an end. The Black Hand’s strikes against Francois became more and more frequent. And then there had been the entire raid on the Vault of the Silent Legion, where Sylvain had slain the solar of his own God only for it to have been for naught. The Ruby Rod of Asmodeus wound up in The Stranger’s hands, and The Stranger revealed himself to be the Emperor of Rython.

All in all, things couldn’t be worse for the Bar Crawlers.

Sylvain kept to himself for the most part after it all happened. Most of his party members were wary to trust him after he’d used a scroll of Sending to secretly contact the Emperor about this cult. He had been afraid. He had thought he was doing the right thing when he handed over the empirical evidence they had.

And it played right into Malacode’s hands.

The nightmares Sylvain dealt with only seemed to get worse after that. Despite his surrender of the bag of holding to Tesi, he could still hear the whispers of doubt in the back of his mind. They would never trust him again. How could they? He’d deliberately betrayed every one of them. He put not only themselves in danger, but their loved ones. It was a blatant disregard of his oath. Some holy champion he was.

In the silence of the night, those whispers echoed louder than anything else in his head.

Even when he tried to go into a meditative trance, he saw the same terrible images play out in his head. Heard the same doubts play out like a hissing snake. Felt the sharpness of steel against his skin. Sylvain could never seem to chase the feeling of fatigue that followed him. Even the scars he’d gotten over a year ago seemed to ache with every movement of his body.

He had truthfully come to prefer those dreams, though.

His other nightmares had him thrown against every enemy that had stood against them before. Each time he stood with his sword in his hand, blade at the ready. Its radiant flame seemed to glow brighter than ever before. The whispers would quickly rise into a cacophony of screams.

“KILL THEM ALL! CUT THEM DOWN! SLAUGHTER THEM LIKE THE BEASTS THEY ARE! MAKE THEM FEEL WHAT IT MEANS TO INVOKE THE WRATH OF THE GODS!”

The light would burn brighter the longer the voices spoke. Sylvain could feel the anger bubble and swell in his chest. He could practically see the faces of everyone who had done the party wrong. Done him wrong. The anger would rise out of his mouth in deranged laughter as he would blindly swing his sword. With each strike he felt, the feeling only grew. Consuming him until he was left kneeling on the barren ground, staring at the carnage around him. Laughing along with the voices.

Those sorts of visions were what kept him up these past few nights.

He leaned over the side railing of the Inn Strider’s deck. Waves crashed against the battered wooden hull, sending a gentle spray of salt water up and into his face on occasion. His hands were folded together as he stared out into the endless night’s expanse. So much ahead of the Bar Crawlers was one big question. It made it difficult to plan for their next move. Especially when they had enemies coming from seemingly every direction.

“Sylvain.”

Sylvain turned his head to see Laila standing behind him. Her long silver hair was unbraided for a change, practically glowing in the pale moonlight. The breeze of the deck ruffled the bottom hem of her shirt. He stood upright and turned fully to face her.

“Laila,” he said. “I-I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”

Laila waved a hand dismissively, “It doesn’t matter. What are you doing up here?”

“I just…needed some fresh air. I suppose,” Sylvain answered.

Laila smiled gently. She took a few sauntering steps forward before reaching out for him. Her arms wrapped around his waist and she buried her face into his chest. Somewhat hesitantly, Sylvain put his arms around her.

“Mind if I stay up here then? I miss having you next to me,” Laila glanced up at Sylvain pleadingly. Her right hand began to trace idle patterns against his chest.

Sylvain laughed softly, “I can’t say no to you.”

Laila grinned. Gently she began to pull Sylvain down to sit on the deck of the ship. He obliged with no resistance, pulling her into his lap and cradling her gently. The two sat together, the cresting waves the only sound for a while.

“Tell me what’s wrong, baby,” Laila finally broke the silence.

Sylvain looked down at her, caught off guard. “Huh?”

“You’re tense. And you make these whimpering noises whenever you fall asleep,” she answered quietly. “You know you can wake me up if you can’t fall asleep. Right?”

“There’s no point in both of us being awake,” Sylvain dismissed.

“There is if I can help you, Sylvain. You just have to let me,” Laila pressed him.

“You can’t. It’s…it’s too much for you to try to take on,” Sylvain protested.

Laila pulled back to look Sylvain in the eye, “Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll never know if you don’t talk to me.”

It doesn’t matter.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sylvain echoed the whisper without thinking. “I’m not gonna bother you with it, okay?”

“It isn’t ‘bothering me’ if I offer it to you. You blockhead,” Laila teased. She playfully punched Sylvain in the arm.

“Laila, please. I don’t want to argue about this,” Sylvain sighed in exasperation. “You don’t need more of my shit weighing you down.”

Laila rolled her eyes. She placed a hand on his hip before leveling a serious look at him, “Sylvain Gautier, I know exactly what I got myself into when I agreed to be your girlfriend.

It’s not her burden to bear.

“It’s not your burden to bear.”

Laila’s brows furrowed together. Sylvain felt her grip on his lower waist tighten, fingers curling around something. She glanced down quickly before redirecting her gaze back to his.

“Sylvain,” she spoke calmly despite the worry shining in her eyes. “What…what is that? In your pocket?”

Curious now himself, Sylvain shifted to reach into his pocket. His fingers curled around a warm, circular piece of metal. He pulled it out of his pocket, turning the soul coin over in his fingers for a moment. Laila reached for it, taking it from his hands. The moment that the coin left him, Sylvain felt a weight lift from his shoulders. His aches and worries suddenly seemed to roll off of him. At the same time, he watched Laila’s face almost instantly darken.

“Laila, don’t-,” he reached forward, but she held the coin just out of his reach.

“What is this thing?” Laila whispered.

“It’s a soul coin. We found them back in Surtur’s Maw,” Sylvain took the coin from her hands. As he did, he felt the crushing weight settle back on his shoulders.

Laila stared at him in disbelief. “That was at least three months ago, Syl. You’ve been carrying it with you this whole time?”

“Well, yeah. I just thought…” Sylvain trailed off as he flipped the coin between his fingers. “I don’t know. The others can’t carry them all, and I feel like it’s my duty to help shield them from it.”

“Sylvain, you don’t need to be carrying that thing. I mean, why do you even have it?”

You can’t leave me alone don’t leave me alone never leave me alone-,

“I can’t leave them alone,” he answered with a noncommittal shrug. “I-I dunno. We carry around a lot of weird shit.”

“Them?”

“Yeah. I…sometimes, it’s like I hear someone talking to me. In my head.”

Laila pulled completely away from Sylvain. She looked at him in a combination of worry and disbelief. Sylvain felt his face suddenly beginning to burn.

“Wh-what?” he asked defensively.

Laila's expression softened ever so slightly, “You’re a good person, hon. But damn if you aren’t an idiot sometimes. You don't need to be carrying around something so…cursed.”

Sylvain opened his mouth to respond, but found the words stuck in his throat. Cursed. He held the coin in both hands, staring at it with a gaze that seemed like he wanted to bore a hole through it. Sylvain closed his eyes, concentrating his holy magic into the tips of his fingers.

“Be set free,” he murmured.

Slowly he opened his eyes. He watched the infernal runes on the coin glow a bright red. The metal grew hot in his hands, so much so that he had to drop the coin onto the deck of the ship. Laila instinctively wrapped her arms around Sylvain as the coin rattled on the ground. From its center rose a vague spectral form bound in glowing red chains. The runes on the coin burned brighter. As they did, the chains surrounding the form seemed to as well before one burst into tiny specs of red arcane light. One infernal rune from the coin disappeared. Sylvain and Laila watched as the other chains began to disappear. With one final, blinding flash of light, they saw the specter’s form in detail.

Floating about five feet off the ground was a dwarven man. Despite his translucent and barely visible form, Sylvain could see a grizzled face looking back at him. There was a tense moment where nothing else seemed to happen. Then the form before them gave a warm smile.

There was a faint whisper in the back of Sylvain’s mind as the wind seemingly blew the form away.

Thank you, Sylvain.

As he stared into the empty space in front of him, Sylvain felt light. As if the burden had been lifted from his very soul. He felt Laila’s grip tighten around him a little.

“Sylvain?” she called to him quietly.

He glanced down quickly and gave her a soft smile. He held her tighter, carefully standing up with her still in his arms.

“C’mon,” he whispered. “I think it’s time we go to bed.”

[skybristle]

rbs > likes

these ref sheets r gonna kill me. BOOO MAW she sucks [I love her]. I hope she dies— oh wait/lh

[skybristle]

rbs > likes

DID YOU KNOW BENDING HORIZONS IS A YEAR OLD?? I DIDN'T UNTIL LIKE YESTERDAY WHEN A FRIEND REMINDED ME. SO I SCRAMBLED TO DRAW THIS

nows your chance to send in any questions/thoughts/comments on the story.... it's been my friend for a while now!

my very first art of them under the cut for comparative purposes....

god i drew them ugly LMAOOOO

[skybristle]

rbs > likes

i was debating posting this and then realized "oh wait ill be so busy with working on this that i wont have anything Else to post so". hehehehhe. color guides / quickref for. Something :3

[skybristle]

BENDING HORIZONS IS DONE!

my local group is done!!! short descriptions r below cut!!!! im so so excited guys omg. please ask abt them [also pls rb this took ages and im rlly proud of them!] toyhouse link here that also has full individual images!!! point out ur faves! im so excited to present them to you all [please like them please like them please l- /lh]

without further ado, here we go! in seniority [and image] order

Plunging Flows of Ash [PFA] - he/him [woman!!] He’s definitely winning his senior of the cycle award! He’s been pretty depressed and poorly functioning from the jump, but would often rely on his partner, Sparks, for help and support. When she’s in her darkest hour, and his privileges as senior are needed, he consistently fails to deliver despite her constant aid in return… and after the mass ascension, he just falls off the face of the earth, sleeping through his own depression even as his dysfunctional group desperately needs him. The catalyst for everything- as he fractured his group in two with his actions and fails to rise to their needs, and he has a chronic inability to accept his own wrongdoings and the fact things have changed. Associated Slugcat: The Colorburst Countless Swirling Sparks [CSS] - she/any Well known among iterators for her many, many methods of iteration and other inventions, Sparks was built with an unusually large [and haphazard] structure that she uses to its full advantage. Always with countless screens pulled up around her, always on some project, eating up her own escapism. She was failed by her creators long ago, but is so desperate to see her fellow iterators happy she keeps pushing on. In lieu of Ash, she has risen to a faux senior status - though lacking any powers to enforce her position. Only about half of the group [Ochre, Chimes, and Aurora] answer to her with any respect of authority- she has not been able to reach the others. Her resentment for her situation with her former lover is festering, and may explode violently once things go awry… Associated Slugcat: The Brainiac

Erupting Maw [EM] - she/her She’s fucking crazy!!! Worshiped as a god by her colony, she has not coped with their loss well. Originally seeking to replace the void left by their departure, she created purposed organisms to inhabit her city and later her can… but watching them rip eachother apart was simply so much more cathartic. She has full control! Her ego and disdain for other iterators as lowly in comparison only grows. Over the cycles, her can has become notorious for having some of the most deadly creatures. She’s an expert of bioengineering… but is the danger in seeking her aid worth it? Associated Slugcat: The Gladiator

Budding Ochre Opportunities [BOO] - she/flor Based on solarpunk aesthetics, flors city and can truly is a delight! With a colony full of roof gardens and brilliant colors, she herself has taken to turning her puppet chamber into a garden. Kind and compassionate, though cutting and assertive, she has made peace with her situation as an iterator and is just trying to live a good life. As flor adds to flors collection, she doesn’t consider any of it may posit a danger to her structure. But she would be at peace with that, too, if it were to occur. The only question is if those who care about her, such as her dearest Chimes, would be. Associated Slugcat: The Recon

Resonant Chimes [RC] - he/him He’s really just chilling, hanging out. No secret problems here, no deep-seated depression over the loss of his colony that he hangs onto, no karma flowers being poured into his puppet coolant just to feel something, none of that! Collecting music, friends with slugcats and scavs alike, having a good time. He’s surprisingly intelligent and has his morals more sorted than just about anyone here, but he’s held back by general apathy and his losses. Maybe, so many cycles detached from their creators, he won’t have to worry about losing anyone again. As long as he drinks the tea, he doesn’t have to think about it, and can pull himself closer to those below who left him. Associated Slugcat: The Gardener

Reaching for Caged Starlight [RCS] - she/it/ast Frustrated endlessly, as most iterators are, by being locked in a box, she’s determined to put an end to this. Not by ascension, though. She’s determined to free them from their cans- allow an escape from this maze. Ast wants to remove the puppet from the umbilical, in a manner where they don’t lose themself completely. Much easier said than done! Its undoing, however, is its cautious and methodical nature. She is too light on her feet to simply dare and cut the wire, let alone having the experience to snap the mechanical arm entrapping her. But, she has all the time in the world, and she will one day see the stars they made her mocking name after. They’ll all see. Ast will get there, by any cost necessary, even if her fellow iterators are disposable to this goal. Associated Slugcat: The Seamstress

A Glittering Aurora [AGA] - she/he Need some gossip? He’s your guy, all right! She burns her endless time away on global chats, basking in the amusement and the knowledge. A bit of a nuisance to her own local group, as she simply can not keep a secret, but… what happens when technology degrades, the message board is silent, he no longer can block out his circumstances,,, and the drama reaches a bit too close to home? Associated Slugcat: The Copycat Wandering Whispers [WW] - they/them A very quiet, lonely iterator, Whispers strays to themself. Only allowed to speak to their fellow iterators for shipments, or, occasionally, their senior for guidance, there were few connections for them besides to the one who vanished off the face of the earth. With their personality thoroughly destroyed by the iron fist of their colony, they simply… quietly observe. But they may hear something they’re not supposed to, and, desperate for a replacement for their mentor, lead themself astray. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and they will glimpse the void in the end and take the plunge. Associated Slugcat: The Mercy

[skybristle]

rbs > likes

idea shamelessly stolen from @localceilingdevil because biblically accurate iterators r immensely entertaining to me. i did this once before but it sucked/was just an identical base

i should have drawn this without antialiasing im still mad i only realiized halfway thruuuuuu

[skybristle]

TEENY TINY. if tumblr blows up these images im gonna be so fucking mad

[skybristle]

rbs > likes !!

I JUST REMEMBERED I WANTED TO POST THESE ON THEIR OWN. OOPS. LOL

[skybristle]

rbs > likes [tags appreciated!]

silly chibified refs for bending horizons. i want simplified designs both since i have a lot of plans and even I have limited patience with my designs but also !!! so i dont feel bad when people set abotu drawing them!!! [you may draw them i will kiss you on the mouth. and i may revenge you :3]. more information abt each of them is in my main post

[skybristle]

maw my beautiful wife i do not care who she killed they probably deserved it anyways...

can i maybe havw...just one maw drawing...pretty please...

sure buoss

also @arsonstick either this IS you or you'd like to see this

[skybristle]

rbs > likes

trying out digitizing my doodles since ppl r allergic to reblogging traditional art on this site. shrugs

[skybristle]

mutual @/copepods drew their silly guy canon accurate and i was Tranfixed. God they're so stupid looking

[skybristle]

rbs > likes !!

updated map and relationship chart[s] for bh

*note: I kinda fucked up the purple lines. the arrow points to the mentor/authority rather than the other way around. oops

[skybristle]

ok fuck it here's the entire pre mass ascension section of my lore doc. are you guys fed

Before the void fluid revolution, the area that would eventually host the BH local group was very, very highly populated by ancients. Close-ish to the equator, with a coast to the west and a mountain range to the east, it became a breeding ground for multiple societies, most notably a fishing/port city that would become highly influential in a future important ancient’s development [winky face].

This high population inspired multiple gen 1 iterators to be built in the same rough area, an unusual practice normally! [this would end up being disastrous, but foresight doesn't seem to be the ancients’ forte].

The first iterator to be constructed was Plunging Flows of Ash, by the architect Black Sand Hourglass, Racing Towards the Start, for the exclusive purpose of… well… solving the problem, as all early iterators. This is notable however because it kind of defines his entire character. He takes his original purpose to heart - to solve the problem for his creators, but nothing more. As a prototype iterator, he has a LOT of struggles with functionality especially when being stretched beyond his means, but it’s also an attitude thing. When he eventually gets his city, Novus, he’s pretty pissy and negligent to it, not to mention his systems cannot keep up especially as his city continues to innovate and modernize on his old bones. He’s generally just… very lazy and apathetic and self centered, wanting to push anything he sees as ‘not his problem’ onto others and refusing to adapt and change.

ENTER Pleas to Limitless Light, Three Scorched Corridors, a very hardworking ancient whom was set on building her own iterator through the Global Iterator Project. Through a very long and arduous construction, she led the Countless Swirling Sparks project- named after her incredibly elaborate and intuitive AI base designed to approach problems in a streamlined and innovative manner- her name originally refers to sparks of innovation!

As Corridors spent decades on the project, she got increasingly more exhausted and lost passion for it, though had to see it through. After a point, she was mostly concerned about leaving behind her legacy of the House of Currents she hailed from and raising an equally brilliant successor. So, as the project is closing, she has a son, Seven Praised Rays, Sun Setting West, laying the pressure on thick for him to take her place as soon as possible so she can ascend. We’ll get back to him later. :3c

The third iterator to be constructed is Erupting Maw- notable because her architect, An Empty Caldera, Rope Held Taught is foreign- sent by the Global Iterator project to prospect and lead construction. While most of the local area is generally accepting, there’s been a much growing tension regarding the effect of building so many iterators, not just in their area but also globally. The rains are getting worse, and a lot of people who can’t afford to move up to live on top of the iterators are dying or suffering in hastily built shelters. In theory, while divisive, Maw’s construction would have led to much more living space for the local population in her city, many people were frustrated that this was just adding to the problems. Many were leaving, with plans being drafted to gain more space by any means necessary- though they awaited Maw’s construction with baited breath.

…This faith would end up being severely misplaced.

After Maw was online, but before Solaris was constructed and the only population was the workers who spent decades building up her divine superstructure, she noticeably began to… shift. This could partially be attributed to her creator, Caldera, a rather judgemental and egotistical person who was extremely prideful of its work, but Maw went far beyond that. Slowly but surely, she convinced her dear creator that, frankly, her purpose was misplaced- they spent decades building a god of biomaterial and metal, only to force her to waste her time attending to impoverished surface dwellers and solving a meaningless problem when they already had void fluid. Maw could instead spend her time being a generous god to the few who earned it by building her. Especially as time went on, Caldera, and future admins, essentially became a puppet to Maw’s will with her being the sole god of her city. And to her devoted followers, Maw was a generous and devoted goddess- but to outsiders looking in, the city was essentially a cruel and xenophobic cult with unknown limits on what they would do to protect the sanctity of their holy grounds.

Considering that everyone was waiting on Maw’s construction to escape the rains- and her structure only accelerated the issue, and the Great Equalizer really began to set in, there was all out panic. Novus couldn’t take on any more than Ash already had, Axon was already densely populated, and Solaris’ puppet government was refusing immigration on any basis even as people were dying from floods below.

To understand the following- I have to pick back up on Rays’ story, a bit before the point we’re currently at. This is where the lore and characters start getting really fleshed out and juicy I promise

After Sparks had finished development in Rays’ infancy, he practically lived and breathed her existence. From when he was very young- she was a continued presence in his life. Back then, Sparks was a very kind and friendly, maybe even a little whimsical, iterator- very committed to her task and to helping people both within her city and far beyond it, Ancients and other Iterators alike. She’s a bit jittery, nervous, enthusiastic, and maybe too hardworking for her own good- but generally speaking she’s happy!

This often manifests in the actions towards her mentor [later this would be labeled ‘Senior’], Ash. He is… not very excited to have the iterator equivalent of an eager puppy pestering him, especially with his established disdain for being given work outside of the Problem. Rather than actually help his appointed mentee, he spends much of Corridors’ administration and beyond whining to her about his problems with his city and all of these distractions, especially later on as his disdain for the younger iterators ‘replacing’ him grows.

Sparks looks at this less with annoyance and rejection and- initially, with pity. She thinks, with her innovative structure and the big aspirations behind her development- it wouldn’t hurt to help her group member out, yeah? And Ash just… keeps taking and taking and taking and sucking her dry, basically since construction, as she begins to shoulder this feeling of responsibility that she really shouldn’t have especially at the prospect of more iterators being built in the local area. She is however desperate for companionship and someone to listen, especially someone older and more respected than her- so she persists. She doesn’t really begin to realize how fucked the whole arrangement is until way, way later- she’s a bit lost and young and just trying to be kind.

As for Rays, he’s a very nervous, somewhat sickly, and isolated child, almost entirely consumed by the weight of his family’s reputation and Corridors practically breathing down his neck for a successor. He struggles to remember the time when he was very young and she was kinder to him. He’s very aware of the fact he will inherit the administrative position [nepotism is pretty common in elite ancient circles], and while he’s far from lazy he’s almost kind of… detached to and afraid of it? Trying to languish in the present rather than confront the future, as the work piles on from an early age. He’s very stressed and antisocial.

Until college [or well, their equivalent], that is, in one of the many prestigious schools located in Axon. He meets two very key people who change the trajectory of all of their lives, making a deeply bonded friend group along the way.

A Cherished Melody, from Riverbeds to Reefs comes from the surface, specifically the western coastal city, having fought tooth and nail with a brilliant and hardworking mind to make it up onto the prestigious iterator cities. It’s loud and rambunctious and brings a very radical perspective to the table- in basically all things, but especially religion. It essentially believed that the construct of the karmas and the crushing societal norms that came with it were ultimately unimportant in the face of the void- and that you should just live life to the fullest and take the plunge to the void when you felt ready. Beyond that, it is an immensely earnest, loyal, and inspiring person, if extremely stubborn.

Similarly, Glowing Amber Sap, Weeping from a Punctured Abyss also hails from the surface- but under much different circumstances. Coming to Axon from the deeply religious areas of the southeast [near the fissure/in the future where Starlight’s can is], the intention of their education was for future monkhood. However, especially living in the somewhat more liberal city, they end up growing deeply dissatisfied with that future and place their perspective more on their love for humanitarianism and conservation. As the world is reshaped under iterators and populated by purposed organisms, and their home temple is razed by rainfall, they feel like they’re the only one seeing this disaster about to unfold as the general tensions [mentioned in the maw section] bubble. Though, knowing they’re well past the point of no return on iterators, they instead wish to conserve pre-equalizer fauna and build more green space for everyone.

Those dreams are far in the future though- for now, Amber’s still grappling with religious guilt and the tear between their aspirations and their home, and consequently they find themselves drawn to Reefs and its radicalism. Similarly, they end up taking Rays under their wing, initially out of Reef’s conviction. As a bonded little pack, Reefs especially motivates Rays to be a better person- rather than cruise on the nepotism, to truly work and earn the position he has, not for reputation or glory but to do good as he’s been handed the chance to. Together, the three of them move into iterator technician work and education with genuinely really purehearted intentions!!! [i sure hope nothing crushes that]

Predictably, about as soon as Rays can support himself, his mother Corridors departs to the void and leaves big shoes to fill. He fumbles, badly, especially at first, but as he matures and evens himself out [especially with the support of his growingly ambitious and prestiged best friends] he becomes a genuinely really capable administrator! He ends up getting genuinely really close with Sparks- she’s friendly and receptive and he spent much of his childhood around her, after all. They’re good friends and he takes his role as her voice in High Council matters extremely seriously, working hand in hand with Reefs especially as it becomes her head technician after a couple decades.

Meanwhile, as the rain crisis accelerates, Amber departs from work on Sparks to instead focus on their own iterator proposition in line with their ideals from college, eventually formulating into the plans for Budding Ochre Opportunities and more importantly to them, her city of Haven where they can execute all of their plans. That project will take many years- and the crisis is here, now, especially as the situation in Solaris boils over and they make it known they will not accept citizens [I know, I’m finally getting back to where we left off]

The response is- predictably, all out fucking panic, as people on the surface begin trying to clamber to Axon in droves and its impossible to accommodate them as the surface becomes practically unlivable.

As a consequence of this, Axon’s High Council comes to a horrifying conclusion- They resolve to expand Sparks’ structure to accommodate more living blocks. Anyone actually working in the iterator and understanding their function [rays and reefs] are rightfully extremely opposed to this- they are living breathing people and you can’t just go tacking on additional body parts and expect it to go well when Sparks was already highly ambitious at her current scale. Even from a mechanical standpoint- they’re incredibly complex machines and trying to slap on additional support structures and jamming iterator neural tissue in there is essentially bound for disaster, power or coolant failures, etc.

Given the decades of bubbling fear and tension that have exploded, however, their protests fall on deaf ears. While Rays is forced to manage this unfurling catastrophe and break the news, Reefs has its arm twisted into actually carrying it out. Sparks… reacts as well as one would expect.

While she recognized the growing tension and unease, and was kind of anticipating a high workload and perhaps a rather large and mismanaged city- this was beyond precedent. Especially considering this decision was made for her in High Council meetings, behind closed doors, no overseers allowed. Her pleas are basically ignored, as Rays tries in vain to placate her [out of deep care and knowing he really doesn’t have the power here, but from her perspective it looks terrible], as her piping and external plating are torn open to quickly and painfully assemble half-assed expansions.

Beyond the betrayal from her creators, her world also begins closing in on her from the fellow Iterator side of things. Scared and desperate, she pleads to Ash as an authority and as her senior to do something, but he at best makes a halfhearted attempt to force broadcast Maw which only gives her the opportunity to mock Sparks, step all over her, and then promptly go ‘lol no’. Ash throws in the towel then and there, acting incredibly dismissive and ambivalent towards Sparks’ agony despite how much she felt she did for him and her desperation, fragmenting even more of her trust and eventually leading her to believe any relationship is transactional and she will inevitably be stabbed in the back. [that’s a GREAT and HEALTHY lesson to internalize sparks GOOD JOB this will not lead to any consequences whatsoever]

And Sparks is fucking angry, not to mention beyond hurt. Beyond the extreme overstimulation and immense pain and electrical storms from desperate overclocking to get this whole mess functional- her trust and compassion and eagerness has been completely shattered under a tide of exhaustion and agony.

Of course, being subjected to this with virtually no outlet gives her cause to turn her rage and frustration on someone, and who better than her admin, the person who swore to be her voice and then “””stood by””” while this was done to her. Their relationship breaks down over several meetings as she turns on him and basically just takes everything he says as bad faith as possible to further her rants, barely listening to him no matter how desperately he cares and the guilt crushing both him and Reefs [more on that later].

Hitting a fever pitch in one of their many many arguments, as Rays attempts to humanize her by thinking of the little things with a gift and Sparks reacting as if he’s trying to buy her complacency, the electricity failures Sparks experiences overflows into her chamber and electrocutes Rays. Reefs is the one to catch his drone’s SOS signal and drag him out. [hey i made a comic about that!]

While Sparks is shut down while they figure out what happened, Rays recovers in hospital with Reefs at his side [also trying to manage the unfolding crisis as the second in command for Sparks- yeah it’s not having a good time] as Amber rushes back to Axon from Ochre’s groundwork.

At this point, Rays has fully sunk into his guilt and self hatred for what he feels he let happen [it would have happened regardless but that doesnt matter] and urges his friends to leave Axon [and leave him behind] while they still can. Reefs protests this, of course, its loyalty runs deep and not even these circumstances will shake it, but in the end both of them are extremely guilty people over what they did to Sparks and Rays convinces it it can do something right by departing and building its own iterator- to help relieve this burden and as an excuse to escape Axon sponsored by the House of Currents. Reefs’ iterator drafts go on to become Resonant Chimes. [hey i ALSO made a comic about THIS!] [this is the last comic don't get excited]

As Chimes is developed [again, gen 2 iterators still took quite a while], he goes from a project of obligation to something Reefs has fallen in love with [in a familial way]. It ends up very dedicated to its kid, even with all of its stress about Rays and its past, but it is able to move on through working on him. Unfortunately, this is where their tight-knit friend group begins to fragment and part ways, with Rays ascending not too long after Chimes and Ochre complete construction.

Yeah, with all that guilt and baggage and him never being able to reconcile things with Sparks? His ascension comes less because he’s prepared and more because he’s so desperate to escape while not betraying his family legacy and Corridors- and this is the only socially acceptable way for him to leave his position behind. He echoes, lingering about Sparks’ structure long past his society’s time. [HEY i made a PMV about this!]

As for Ochre and Chimes- they come to be as a pair, basically inseparable from the beginning. Besides their creators being long term friends and their twin constructions, they also compliment eachother very well!

Resonant Chimes was established with his kindness in mind- fostered very much by his parent Reefs. He had a focus on citizens, rather than working much on the problem, and took to that job with great pleasure! Following Reefs experiences with Sparks, it puts immense stress on his autotomy as a person and gives him a lot of freedom. Continuing that thread, its House of Tides [named after its mother, who passed due to the rains during the Sparks crisis] was built on a fundamental level of trust and a very close working relationship between technicians and maintenance & the governmental structure, which Chimes even occasionally got the opportunity to partake in [and even then, the point was that everyone in power over him was trusted by him. If he ever got extreme icks from someone who he was placed in the care of then he had the option to do something about it, unlike so many of his kind]

His deep relationship with his city manifests out of his choice to help the people of his city above all else because that’s just… the kind of person he is. Helping people, engaging in their rituals, getting dressed up, etc makes him immensely happy for CENTURIES. He loves being social and helping people, even with his awareness of their incompatible lifespans. He’s completely dependent on them to feel whole, in a way. The mutualism and synergy between him and Chorus is incredibly notable.

Ochre, meanwhile, has a much more modest personality. Flor’s facility is more focused on quaint things like pigment production and local manufacturing of crafts, with the city of Haven itself being on the smaller side and largely self-sufficient with their vast green spaces and solar panels. Not to mention, her own admin and architect, Amber, remained more focused on the conservation efforts within Haven. Their relationship with Ochre was typically cordial, but distant. Due to her shy personality, she ended up really drawn to Chimes and his kindness and sociability. Paired with a close working relationship and her own earnest passion, they stay extremely close as friends [and more later on].

Events within the Local Group became significantly more relaxed after that, though the expansions crisis would continue to haunt the group, both in its iterators and politics. Sparks would continue to substitute as senior for Ash as the group expanded, though would long shed that enthusiasm and joy that drove it, sinking into a sense of obligation as she slowly grew more disillusioned and frustrated with Ash as her pain and workload piled on and she forced herself through it all. She created such a complex mask- because she had to- that as events proceeded she would genuinely begin to believe she was okay and had moved on. [trust me, she hadn’t, and it's festering! we’ll get to that :3]

The next iterator to be constructed is Reaching For Caged Starlight, by a foreign architect imported by the Global Iterator Project, At Place Among the Stars, Spirals of Billowing Silk. While generally unremarkable, it is notable that these circumstances of construction led to a sort of mistrust and distance from the interconnected trio of Axon, Haven, and Chorus. That was fine for the most part, with both xeir government and Starlight herself more interested in quietly working on the problem without external management.

Based on asts location, next to a natural fissure close to the void and a corresponding temple that was once of great importance, its city develops a culture where void baths certainly cannot be a true path to the void, as only the great Sea is holy in of itself, with void fluid extracted from it just being a material. Essentially, they believed in a fundamental version of the “old path” where one must travel directly to the void sea at the end of their life. While Starlight doesn’t care much for her citizens and they in turn respectfully leave her to her work, this mindset became a fact of life that would be warped severely when they were gone,the solution became a point of frustration, and a dash of Sliverism on top.

Proceeding onwards, the 7th iterator to be built in the area is A Glittering Aurora, likely the last without certain circumstances transpiring. Her project was spearheaded by Ten Hollow Pines Pointing Towards Snowcapped Poles, with the most notable parts of their background being their upbringing in Chorus. Though born well after its ascension, he took Reefs’ methodology to heart and greatly admired it, as well as having a background in bioengineering working with Chimes, an iterator he cared deeply for.

When it was allowed to work on an iterator of its own, it, of course, carried this relaxed attitude and immense stress on autonomy into the project. Unfortunately, his view of Reefs was greatly warped, and he frankly neglected the immense amount of work and patience Reefs put into it to make the whole thing work, even long past its death and without any enforcement towards Chimes- largely in thanks to the person Chimes already was.

Pines' relationship with Aurora was friendly, but not nearly close as they would have wanted. While he gave her all the freedom in the world to do whatever she wanted, and often acted towards her as if they already had an established relationship which… didn’t exist. Pines expected, after all of its hard work to build him, and all of its leniency, for the relationship reflected with Chimes and his admins to fall into its lap. However… Aurora simply isn’t the same person Chimes is, and rather than want to spend his free time working with his city and engaging with them, he was more interested in chatting away on Global and general drama and discourse observed through overseers. Regardless, Pines still held hope, and often would refuse to put their foot down on Aurora's ambivalence even as Albedo’s citizens [mainly politicians], especially of the more religious type, got frustrated with this behavior.

Of note was an at the time somewhat high ranking member of the overall government, A Silent Refrain, Banners Mottled by Shadows, primarily an expert in encryption and security with a powerful background and access to Aurora’s superstructure. Capitalizing on the frustrations with Pines, decades into his administration, possibly as the beginnings of an attempted coup, he illegally modified certain parts of Aurora’s structure and AI base to restrict her access to Global. This was with the intent to make her more ‘motivated’ and ‘behaved’, and other such things.

Predictably, when Pines found out, it was fucking LIVID. Refrain refused to budge and was very rigid in the idea that iterators were designed to serve and should act like it. This resulted in a rather violent confrontation, ending with Refrain almost crushed under the claws of Pines' pet lizard and the demand to leave Albedo in what was essentially exile. [Aurora would end up restored to normal and okay- though come out of it extremely fascinated with the same locks that had hurt him- specifically within breaking code and the like. Rarely would she ever go as far as taboos, though…]

Frankly sick of both Pines’ and Aurora’s bullshit and the generally ‘immorality’ of Albedo, he complied and took his more religious bunch with him and went running back to the Global Iterator Project with exaggerated stories. Given his influential background and patronage to the project, and undeniable skill, the wing of the Project in Orrery eventually approved his long effort to get an Iterator grant.

Given his track record and his rather cruel opinions of iterators, the ensuing project went about as well as expected. As ancient society in general grew more frustrated and impatient with the lack of a solution, matching with the increased availability of void fluid, the bubble that would eventually burst to form the mass ascension was already well over their heads as Wandering Whispers began construction.

While rushed, there was also a lot of intentional cruelty in their design, manifesting from the same expertise Refrain used to hurt Aurora. Their own autonomy was heavily restricted, with barely any access to their group beyond their senior. Paired with Refrain’s iron fist over their work quota, general cruelty from both him and their citizens in general, and isolation, they ended up a very scared and meek iterator with almost no grasp on personhood.

Seeing a very alarming reflection of herself, Sparks urged Ash [who she was already rather out of patience with at this point] to get off his ass and offer an outlet to their poor groupmate as Whispers was supposedly allowed to contact him for ‘iterating and training purposes only’. Surprisingly, Ash took to this task and actually grew somewhat fond of the younger iterator- mainly due to their vulnerability and immense trust to the only kindness they were given. Sparks, exhausted from keeping up her facade for so long, chose not to intervene further [and I mean, what would she have done?]

In the end, this wouldn’t amount to much, as the overarching global government eventually sent out the Mass Ascension mandate within only a couple decades of Whispers’ construction, simultaneously shutting down the Global Iterator Project. Though the population had been dwindling for quite some time- this was the nail in the coffin, and all ancients were expected to meet their fate in the vats. The few stragglers who managed to escape the often forceful baths could not sustain society on their own in the wastes below.

This of course had an immense impact on each Iterator, though I will get to that in the next section. :3

Notably, one of the last events to happen- just before their ascension, Chimes’ last admin descended into his chamber to give him a gift. His blanket, made of countless quilt squares made by generations of his close friends, admins, and technicians, a tradition started by Reefs before it left. He would cling fiercely to it and what it represented for the rest of the timeline.