Okay, so, from now on, imagine this AU's Bracken being voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. It's the one random headcanon for her that has been consistent.


Familiar Worn Out Faces

By Bilbo-sama

Chapter 7


Entry 4

I am now having hallucinations or visions about being back in my other (this?) world. So far its been a couple of flashes of a battle against Doloran. I'm not even sure if we are making any progress against him. The man is greatly skilled in magic and his staff surprisingly hits harder than it appears. The faint twinge in my side from last time has faded by now so presumably its just mental.

I have yet to meet this new world's Bracken, Evan, and my counterpart. I must expect that events have played out differently in Bracken and Evan's lives. And that perhaps they may be unrecognizable.


Roland didn't know how long it took before he was visited again. It usually happened between meals which for all he knew could be hours or day.

And it was very boring in here.

His Leafbook Viewer was either not compatible with this world's network or Leafbook didn't exist. There was so many pictures one could take of their prison cell so Roland could only go through the photos he had taken during the course of his nearly-year long adventure.

He sighed and dismissed the tablet back into his arms band.

[I CAN HELP YOU ESCAPE.]

"No thanks," said Roland.

[HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE BEFORE ISOLATION AND BOREDOM TAKE ITS TOLL?]

...That was a good point. Damn.

"It's not isolating if you're talking to me," Roland retorted as he shook his head in an attempt to dismiss the Kingmaker.


The biggest waterspout he had ever seen formed into existence and spun towards Bracken's direction in a concerning speed.

All he can do is rush over to her side while shouting, "Look out -"


" - gah!" His warning cry became pained as he collided with the wall. He muttered a few curses as he rubbed his aching shoulder.

He focused into his arms band and managed to find a soreaway leaf. His supply had dwindled enough since the start of the storming of the island containing the Horned One. He can't afford to take more out, especially when he keeps switching between a battle and the cell.

"Well, that was dumb," commented a woman's voice. Roland flinched, startled by the sudden noise.

He turned to the source and somewhere during his brief moment of lost time, a tall woman with short chin length red hair wearing a yellow tank top with cargo pants made for heavy duty wear and boots smirked at him in amusement.

"I thought I was somewhere else for a moment," Roland explained.

"You didn't go anywhere," said the woman, her voice deeper than he remembered being.

"That's what the Kingmaker said when he was here, Bracken."

'Bracken' narrowed her eyes, "the others told me that you have no idea who they were at first. What's different for me?"

"Process of elimination," replied Roland calmly, "I haven't met the counterparts of the Bracken and King Evan I know of yet. Your accent doesn't sound upper-class Dellian and Lofty's counterpart mentioned a King so you can't be Evan."

"I could be President of Macrostem for all you know."

'That sounds terrible,' he refained from saying. "Then why are you here and not at Broadleaf?"

'Why a leaf?' Bracken didn't say. "I could be visiting Zip to catch up and wondering how you managed to get down here and change clothes so fast when you're in the throne room!"

Roland's mind stuttered to a halt. "He's here?"

"Yeah, demanding something why nobody came for him sooner about this when we haven't heard or seen him since we kicked his ass a month ago. Probably busy seducing somebody before dumping them like he did with Leander," her face darkened at the thought. Her friend is still trying to get over that betrayal.

"He what?" The Leander he knew confessed that it took him years to confess his love to Nerea before the loop and the four pillars were put into effect. But he still seemed oblivious to the fact that some compliments he was given on his travels had a sexual implication to them. Or perhaps he did notice and ignored them. Roland had never asked Leander about it and instead was content to look on in amusement to see how far some interested parties would go before Roland, Batu, or Bracken had to intervene.

But the thought that somebody would hurt his friend's heart like that...That somewhere it actually happened...

"If it makes you feel any better," said Bracken gently as she noticed the prisoner's angry expression, "Leander did punch him in the face a few times during the fight against him. Guy is surprisingly strong despite being so squishy."

"It does actually," confirmed Roland. He -


- raised his sword over his head and slammed it against the sphere containing Doloran. He wasn't sure what the sorcerer was planning to do in there but it probably wasn't good.

Roland heard the Horned One laugh tauntingly and he scowled.

After casting Pressure Drop in hopes the gravity spell would distract Doloran inside his sphere of time stalling, he raised his sword and slipped into his stance before lunging -


- forward and yelped as he stumbled and landed on the ground. His sword clattered beside him.

Bracken paused in her tracks and looked down at Roland, "Something the matter, old man?"

"I...it happened again," Roland attempted to pick up his sword in order to return it to his arms band but he was having some difficulty.

"Why am I shackled?" he asked in confusion.

"Because we're going to speak with Evan," explained Bracken as she picked up the weapon and noted how the prisoner stared at her arm in contemplation before he shrugged.

"Well," Roland ventured as he carefully touched the sword's blade and willed it back into his arms band before looking around, "that sure explains why I'm out of my cell. How much did I miss? Last I remembered, we were talking about how Leander avenged himself."

"That was twenty minutes ago," Bracken pointed out.

"And I was busy trying not to die somewhere else."

Bracken looked back at the conversation they had and remembered how Roland suddenly became wooden and subdued. He didn't seem surprised (or any emotion, really) when she told him about the symbol...

"So...you're saying you missed the part where I said you also tried to seduce me and Trey into betraying Zip as your first tactic to get the Kingsbond?"

His speechless expression was a lot better than the flat face he had on the first time she explained what the Arcane had done.

"Not at the same time, mind you," Bracken added, "but he really should have waited for at least a few months for us to forget about him and perhaps did some research before trying Trey. Just because I like girls doesn't mean Trey prefers dudes. Especially ones who had hit on his friend a few hours before."

The prisoner now appeared to be cringing in secondhand embarrassment. Bracken chuckled at the sight.

"If it makes you feel any better, that part never happened," she confessed. "Instead, he cast some sort of mind-bending spell that made Zip forget every solution to making the reactor actually work."

"And so President Vector spent months obsessing over it, leading to everyone who worked on the project getting ill from overwork and his other duties to his nation becoming neglected to the point that everyone began protesting," guessed Roland.

"Yeah, and he didn't stop until I had to remind him why he founded Macrostem in the first place." She purposely adjusted a lock of her red hair with her half-metal arm.

"It was your leg where I'm from."

"Huh," Bracken looked down at her metal forearm, "weird."

"In-"


He was back in Allegoria and it was clear Doloran was flagging. His robes were torn and scorched. His snake-shaped headdress had been knocked off at some point. Roland can see a few patches of red here and there. The Horned One was not impressed by this and Roland knew it would be a matter of time before the beast pours its power into healing the king it was bonded to.

Roland had to act fast.

He ran to his soul mate and punched the man right in the face. He watched with satisfaction as Doloran made a startled noise as he toppled to the ground.


"We're here," announced Bracken, startling Roland. They were standing before a set of large doors that Roland recognized as the ones leading to the throne room.

His nose throbbed. He raised his still shackled hands to feel it and found it undamaged.

He should have known that the soul mate thing would do something like this.

"I'm ready as I can be," he said, noting that his voice sounded a bit off. A bit rougher. Older. It could be just his mind remembering the last time he broke his nose. He'll just have to look into this later.

The doors opened and Bracken led him into the throne room. Batu and and Tani were the only ones besides the man standing before the throne, his back facing the approaching newcomers, present. His head was covered in some sort of winged headdress.

Batu, now that he was in brighter lighting, appeared to be a decade or two younger and perhaps a few inches shorter. His brown furred cape was fastened by a group of linked medallions. Colorful markings covered his cheeks. He indeed had no mustache or any facial hair. It was still disconcerting like the first time Roland had noticed.

This world's Tani was like Roland was seeing a future version of the tiny eleven year old pirate girl. Her height stopped at her brother's chest. Her facial features were sharper, more mature. She had on either white stockings or leggings underneath her knee-length dress. Roland was not sure and would rather not stare too long, minding the consequences if he kept doing so.

Both of the pirates were quickly looking at him and at the figure up ahead. Batu scowled and muttered about tricks.

Roland looked around and frowned, "Where's Leander?"

"Something about consulting spell books," shrugged Tani. "He's missing out on this but I don't blame him."

"Ah, so it is true," said the Arcane up ahead. He removed his headdress and Roland saw, with a sudden dread of anticipation, that it was eagle shaped. "My alternate self is present in this world."

Roland the Arcane turned around and Roland Crane stared back in shock at a reflection of his original aged face.


Do you guys know how long I have been sitting on that cliffhanger? I am so happy that I managed to set that scene free.

So yes, AU Roland has been 48 for two thousand years. To be honest, I have not decided on aging AU Doloran up and maybe he doesn't need to be.

Originally, AU Roland's modus operandi for Kingsbond yoinking was going to be seducing someone close to the ruler and somehow convince them to pull a betrayal. But that's really unfair for Leander to be part of a temporary harem and I couldn't think of a lover for Goldpaw and Ding Dong Dell, so now we're down to just him with a broken heart. Long story short, Roland realized he was definitely having ~oh no the feelings~ and panicked for a year. Then after running off on the high of at last getting close to his goal, he engineered a situation where Leander publicly broke one of the Four Pillars, stole Nerea's Kingsbond, dramatically said that he faked his feelings the whole time, and got the heck out.

He's not going to get back together with Leander any time soon though. There's a high chance that he wrecked that up.

AU Bracken's backstory has been jumping around between 'Uncharted/Tomb Raider protagonist', actual president of AU Broadleaf, gender swapped to male, and Roland's once loyal minion. Treasure Hunter Bracken actually sounds amazing though but I'd rather read that AU than write it. If you want to take on that AU, dooooo iiiiiit.

Come back next time where we learn the other change to Leander's character and Evan finally makes an appearance.