Chapter 32 – Vacuo, Argus, and Grimmlands: A Tale to Tell

It was three weeks until Years End, and Garek had wanted to do something special for Selene. Right now, he was leaning toward an upgraded quarterstaff that included a mechashift ranged option. Wanting it to be a surprise, and knowing her love of weapons, he'd enlisted Cinder into the foray to visit a local armorer in Argus. It might not be ready by Years End, but he could at least surprise Selene with the planned gift.

And so it was that the two were walking down a side street in Argus, only about ten blocks from their residence, when Cinder tapped Garek on the arm.

"Garek, there's some creepy man following us." She'd become hyper aware of things like that since the attack on her friends, so it wasn't surprising that she spotted the man before he did. But it still rankled that he was becoming complacent with their safety.

Garek spared a surreptitious glance backward. There was an older man behind them, and he obviously had been watching them, because he glanced away almost immediately. He was an older man, with silvery hair pulled back in a ponytail and a braided silver beard. Garek got the quick impression that he was wearing clothes more reminiscent of Vacuan style than Argesian or even Mistralian. In fact, his dress was a little thin for an Argus Winter, and the guy had to be a little miserable from the cold.

Garek also got the distinct impression that the guy was armed, beneath the thin travel cloak he wore.

"Hmmm…" Garek said softly. "Cinder, let's pop into that store up there. Follow my instructions. Got it?"

"Got it." Cinder nodded, not questioning. Cinder wasn't armed, but Cinder still had her Semblance which she wouldn't hesitate to use if he gave the word. That was both reassuring and terrifying.

They made it two doorways down, and entered the hobby shop he'd indicated. He'd seen it had an exit door to a side alley running along next to it. Entering, Garek bid Cinder stay obviously in the open, and peruse the shelves within view of the windows.

And then he crept toward the back of the store, near the emergency exit he'd seen, after flashing his Huntsman's license at the proprietor and giving the universal 'shush' gesture. He got a nod, and no alarm went off when he exited quietly.

Once in the alley, he found the man leaning up against the wall of the store, facing away from Garek, and watching the storefront.

Garek moved forward just out of weapons-reach when the man spoke. "I'm not here to hurt anyone, Huntsman Grae. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't stick that Grimm-poker into anything vital." His voice was deep and even, but with a hint of tension to it. But he didn't make any moves himself.

Well isn't this déjà vu all over again, Garek thought.

"You know my name. Why are you following me?" He looked the man over, and realized he'd shifted his cloak to the side so that Garek could see his weapon. It was a mace of some sort with what looked like retractable blades built into the head. That and his build screamed Huntsman-trained.

"I do. And I know your fiancée was well." The man's voice dropped. "My only question is whether you know Selene, who and what she really is…"

That didn't put Garek at ease. Not one bit. His hand slowly shifted onto the hilt of his rapier, and he stepped back a single pace, eyes scanning the alley and then rooftops nearby. Ears rotating to listen for quiet footsteps or weapons being drawn. "Who do you work for?" he hissed.

The man laughed bitterly. "Oh… now that's a question for the ages, Huntsman Grae. A question for the ages. Was a time when I could have told you that, without hesitation. These days, hell if I know myself, sometimes." He shook his head. "Mind if I turn around?"

"Go ahead. Slowly." Garek stepped back a few more paces as the man turned, arms remaining folded across his chest. His face was worn through age or care, with multiple scars. His nose had been broken at some point and healed crookedly. He looked to be at least two decades older than Garek, though hard living combined with Huntsman resilience could make that misleading a decade either direction. He had dark emerald-green eyes, and they held Garek's gaze steadily.

"To answer the question you didn't ask, my name is Forrest Stonecrop. And to answer the one you did, I work for myself mostly. If you're asking whether I'm working for Her," Garek caught the capitalization, "then answer is no. If you're asking if I'm working against her… well that's complicated." The man, Forrest, frowned a little.

Garek barked a laugh. That kind of language I can understand. The man let a hint of a smile crack. "And that reaction tells me a lot, right there, Grae. So, you do know about Selene's… unique situation."

"That depends," Garek said, unwilling to give away information. It felt like talking to Lionheart all over again, except their roles were reversed. "I still need to know how you know me, and what your intentions are."

The smile faded slightly. "Well, the short answer is that I am someone who knows who and what Selene is, and I was told of you by her mother, and I know who and what She is too." He frowned in thought. "My concern was to make sure you were aware of what you were getting into, before I barged into whatever little fairy tale you thought you were living." He tilted his head back to the shop wall. "Who's the kid? She's not yours and Selene's."

Garek was processing what the man had said. He was clearly someone who knew Salem, based on what he'd said. But he didn't have the feel of one of her agents, and they had supposedly known who those were. That's if he was telling the truth about who pointed him this direction.

He had an idea. But still… "She's none of your business. And since you seem to imply you know so much about my business, you won't mind if I call Selene, right now, and ask her about you?"

The man tensed, jaw working. "Go ahead."

Garek kept his eyes glued to Forrest, and carefully extracted his scroll and dialed Selene with video enabled. The scroll rang and she. "Garek, what is-" she realized he wasn't looking at the screen and saw the look on his face. "Garek, is something wrong?"

"I've got a man here, claims to know you," he turned the scroll around to face toward the man who called himself Forrest.

There was a gasp from the scroll, and then Selene breathed a single word.

"Father…"

Well shit, Garek thought.

A week prior, Forrest Stonecrop had been sitting at the tiny rough dining table for one in his rustic home on the outskirts of a small town just at the border of Vale and Vacuo. It was primarily a trading village, and not a wealthy one, since the only trade goods that would bother with an overland route like this were ones that were handled in smaller quantities and didn't spoil with the long travel times. Otherwise, they'd have used sea or air routes.

He'd been living there for going on five years. In fact, he'd moved here specifically because it was the ass-end of nowhere, and because it made travel, and the temptation of it, harder. He earned a living easily enough, with his Huntsman training combined with his Semblance, and sometimes he marveled at the fact that he'd survived to see his fiftieth birthday.

Not that he'd celebrated it with anyone.

And then his scroll rang. The village had a repeater. They'd spent most of their budget two years ago on one. That wasn't the shock. The shock was the fact that it rang at all. He felt a sense of creeping dread, picked it up as if it were venomous, and looked at the caller information. No ID it offered helpfully.

He cursed and answered audio only.

"Who is this," he said hoarsely. "How did you get this number?"

"I have my ways, Forrest. And I doubt I need introduce myself."

Forrest sat very still for a time, trying to force his throat to swallow against the fear gripping him in its icy embrace. He could think of a half dozen reasons She would be calling him, and none of them were good reasons that bode well for anyone in Remnant. He stood slowly, trying not to make a sound that would carry through the scroll, and reached for his weapon, never far from his hand the last two decades. "Salem." He eased out of the chair carefully and shifted over to the cubby where his bugout bag sat, always packed.

"Forrest. I trust you are well?"

"I was…" He had the bag now. He'd set the scroll down on the table and pulled out the microphone/speaker repeater so he could leave the scroll there, in case it could be tracked. Then he lifted and moved the chair, and reached under the edge of the carpet below it to grasp a small trap door, just big enough for him and with the carpet glued to its top.

He eased it open, revealing a ladder leading downward.

"Ah, Forrest." He heard a sigh on the other end of the call, "I had not anticipated that calling you would be so… stressful for you." Forrest literally felt the tone of Salem's voice shift subtly, the hint of power bleeding out of it with an effort. There was a tinge of emotion in the voice that he had not expected, perhaps regret.

He halted his moves to leave his home.

Salem sounded… sincere. Over the years, he'd learned for his own survival to read her moods in her tone. This one did not sound like a 'I have sent my servants to desecrate your corpse' mood which bode well.

"Oh?" He felt himself shifting from terrified to pissed off, which was completely irrational, but not an unexpected response. If she wanted him dead, he was probably dead. But what the hell was she doing calling him after five years of silence. And how was she calling? "What do you want, Salem?"

Salem laughed in a way that he had heard only very rarely. It was an honest expression of amusement that held no malice. He felt his legs suddenly turn to jelly with relief or perhaps shock, and allowed himself to drop to the floor.

"My apologies, Forrest. I am not very good at this." Did Salem just… apologize? "I wished to provide some updates on what our daughter has been doing with her life. I thought… that you might wish to know."

"And so I dragged myself out to Vale, caught an airship to Argus, and tracked you down."

The three adults were seated in the Grae Living Room, drinking wine. Garek and Selene sat on one sofa, Selene curled against him for support and comfort. Forrest in an armchair. To say the reunion of father and daughter had not yet been warm was an understatement. They had greeted each other warily, as if each were concerned the other might reject them at any moment.

Cinder had been given a short explanation regarding who he was, and Crystal had arrived to ferry her to the Emporium, since the conversation was likely to include Salem's alien nature.

"What exactly did she tell you after that?"

"Not a lot, really. I think she wanted Selene to have the pleasure of filling me in. She told me that you two were engaged, and that you were a Huntsman, which she apparently finds hilarious." His dark green eyes glittered, and it wasn't with amusement.

"And you were following me because…"

"Wanted to make sure you knew what you were involved in before I showed myself to Selene." He glanced at his daughter. "I'll apologize up front, but I would have walked away if she'd been leading you on without knowing what she is. I wouldn't have been able to deal with that." He looked at Selene again, for the dozenth time. "Your mother must have picked out that look for you. It's got little enough of me in it."

Ouch. That made Garek angry. "Try not to be an asshole, Forrest." Garek pulled Selene in a bit closer as he felt her stiffen.

Forrest flinched. "Sorry Selene. That was… I was angry at Salem, not you."

"Mhm…"

Garek looked from the man to the girl. "She has the shape of your eyes, you know. And your ears. Eye and hair color aren't the end-all be-all."

Forrest grimaced, "Gods… I've been isolated too long. Turned into a jackass." Garek felt Selene loosen a little at that. Another thing they apparently had in common. "Selene are you able to change back?"

"I am. It requires a small aura drain to maintain this."

"I'd prefer your real appearance."

"Truly?"

"That's the little girl I remember."

Selene's appearance rippled as color washed out of skin and hair, and scarlet and black color flooded her eyes.

"Ah… there's my little Grimmling," Forrest sighed and smiled. He leaned back, clearly more at ease.

Selene's breath caught. "Father…" No, they hadn't hugged in tearful reunion when he'd arrived. She had not seen him in five years. She felt shy and hurt and a little angry. No one had explained why his visits had grown less and less frequent as she'd grown up. Perhaps now is the time. "I can think of reasons, but… I would hear them. Why did you leave me?" She whispered.

Her father closed his eyes and wallowed thickly. "Ah Selene, that's got an easy answer, and a hard answer. The easy answer is because your mother and that place both terrify me. I never got used to it, and it ate at my bones every time I set foot there. And your mother's moods can be… destructive."

Selene nodded, accepting these as truths. "And the difficult answer?"

"The difficult one is that it was hard for me to reconcile being your father with being a Huntsman. When you were a wee little thing, you were my little Grimmling." He smiled fondly. "As you got older, I could more easily justify not coming around so often. You were doing well, being taken care of…"

"I still missed you," she objected. "I still needed my father."

"I know my justification was a lie. That wasn't the real reason. The real reason was that I knew she wouldn't let me take you away. You were going to be raised in that place, and I couldn't stay there. And I believed that eventually, I'd come visit, and some reaction of yours would show me you'd become…"

"Like her."

"Yes. It would have broken me, to see my daughter at Salem's right hand."

"Oh…" Selene shuddered, and Garek gave her shoulder a squeeze and kissed her head above her ear.

He felt he had to defend her. "Selene didn't become like Salem." He considered. "No that's not true. She is like her mother, in a lot of ways, but how Salem should have been as a mother."

Forrest nodded once, slowly. "I was wrong." His voice was thick.

"You were," Selene answered. "And you needlessly deprived me of my father."

He took a long drink of wine, set it down carefully, and exhaled slowly. "I did."

Selene shook her head. "But you were correct in some things. I suspect you would have come into conflict with mother over my raising. And no, she would not have allowed you to remove me from Evernight, not even for a day, to the Kingdoms. It required a near tragedy for her to understand the lengths I would go to for my freedom."

"I assume there's a story there." Another drink. "I've… missed a lot."

"Yes. But there is time to reacquaint ourselves. Will you stay?"

Forrest nodded, sagging. "As long as you'll have me."

"You've got balls, Grae," Forrest said after they had recounted how they had met, and how Salem had reacted.

"You're confusing desperation for bravery."

Forrest laughed heartily. "Not really. I've seen a lot of men fall apart under less pressure than that. Don't undersell yourself. But go on. Tell me how you ended up in Argus with a…. daughter?"

"Ah, that's an even longer story…."

As usual, it took over an hour to tell the full story, and they didn't need to hold anything back from this man. There were moments where he made comments of appreciation and dismay as appropriate. He also expressed an interest in meeting Garek's parents at some point.

It was Selene who asked the next question, though Garek had been burning with curiosity as well. "So, father. Would it be possible to tell us the story of exactly how you and mother…" she struggled for the way to ask the question.

"Ended up in a position to be blessed with you?" He shook his head, his face a mix of emotions. "It wasn't forced, if that's your concern. Though you shouldn't be shocked to learn that it was coerced."

"But how… mother had spent centuries without… why would she chose to do so now?"

"Ah… well that probably is my fault." He grinned. "You really want to hear the full story?" The other two held their wineglasses nearly forgotten, all attention on the older man. "Well, it all started because I was young, and stupid, and liked sailboats."

Twenty-something year-old Forrest Stonecrop was living his best life. Newly graduated out of Shade Academy and flush with money from his first few contracts, he'd decided to do something audacious and stupid. He was going to solo sail from Vacuo to Vale.

The fact that he'd hated his Shade Team made things easier. They'd been so damned serious about the whole Huntsman lifestyle, always focusing on their duty to the people of Remnant. He wanted the flash, the rush, of being a Huntsman. Oh, he cared about people, but he'd never understood the other three's drive. It didn't help that all of them had combat-based Semblances, while he'd not even figured out whether he had one yet.

So he'd wished them good luck and fuck you, and decided to live a little.

The first two days had been perfect. Sailing during the day, camping out on small islands along the coast. Hunting for food.

Then the third day, a sudden dust storm had blown up over the Vacuan desert. It had come hard from the Southwest and churned an opaque wall of cutting sand toward him. He'd tried desperately to make for the leeward side of a craggy island, to find cover from the windblown wall of grit.

He hadn't made it.

The resulting storm not only blinded him, it blew the craft helplessly off course, caked the rigging before he could furl the sails, and then shredded those too.

He woke on the shores of a dark and blasted land, the boat destroyed beyond repair with the tools and materials at hand.

He wandered a full two days, carrying the supplies he could salvage from the boat, before the first Grimm found him.

And to his surprise, the pack of Beowolfs did not immediately attack him, despite his challenges. He even tried attacking them, thinking a death in battle would be preferred to waiting for them to tear him apart in his sleep, or worse, starving to death slowly once his food and water ran out.

He experienced none of these things.

Instead on the third day, a Bullhead arrived, and the Grimm fled. Four Huntsmen exited, and he nearly wept with relief. The pilot was a Faunus woman with jagged teeth who introduced herself as Tock. They gave him food and water. It was much better than what he'd been living off of. He didn't remember passing out from the drugged food.

He did remember waking up in what he later learned was Evernight Castle, disarmed and in a cell.

First his captor, Tock, came and interrogated him.

Then Salem came.

"Salem was… terrifying. Alien. Raw power and malice."

"I've felt that," Garek said, nodding. "Turned my legs to noodles."

"Oho, lad, I'm afraid you haven't felt what I experienced. I watched Salem… soften… over the years once Selene was born and as she grew up. What you faced… that was likely a shadow of what walked into that cell." Garek shivered at the thought. "Salem started out only questioning me. She was convinced that I was an agent of someone named Ozma. At the time, I had no idea who she was talking about. Ozpin wasn't even the headmaster of Beacon back then, just a deputy." He saw their faces. "Oh yeah, I know about that little story too. Salem got chatty once Selene was born." He laughed softly. "You were such a tiny thing, little Grimmling. All scarlet eyes and drool and tiny little fingers."

All three of them smiled at that, Garek giving Selene a little nudge.

Then Forrest shook himself. "Sorry. Sidetracking myself. It's been a while since I've talked this much." He tapped his fingers. "Right. Interrogation. She was convinced I was one of Ozma's agents, sent to spy on her. First she tried to explain why his efforts were hopeless and why I should instead turn to her cause. That he would abandon me once my usefulness was at an end. Of course, since I had no idea who the hell she was talking about, and at that point knew nothing about her either, I wasn't about to 'change sides'."

"From there, she progressed to psychological pressure, trying to get me to tell her what I knew." This tone grew bitter. "But I didn't know anything. I was a young, brash, dumb-ass who got himself in a situation no man should have to deal with."

"And then the physical torture started." His face creased at the memory. Selene looked sick. "Yeah. Salem knew how to hurt people in ways that Aura wouldn't stop. Electric shock, pressure, heat. She was using some sort of electrical device on me, and my whole body was straining hard enough that I thought my spine would snap. I was in agony."

His tone shifted, and he grinned. "And then a miracle happened. My Semblance unlocked." He rubbed his beard. "You know, I did some research after, there's some argument that Semblances aren't set in stone at birth. That if they unlock due to extreme stress or need, they can mold themselves to that need. My Semblance, the one that unlocked, took away pain."

"Woah," Garek said.

"Yeah. Woah. The first time it engaged was automatic. I was in agony, and then suddenly I felt my aura surge, and then I felt fine. Perfectly fine."

He looked at them.

"I remember hearing the sounds of my own screams bouncing off the walls of the room, echoes dying out, and then looking up at her frowning at me. I was shackled to the table, and my back was still arched and my muscles were bunched and straining, but I felt… fine. I would have laughed if I could have breathed." He shook his head. "Salem just looked at me, and pulled the prod or taser away. Stared some more, and then hit me again."

The grin became savage. "I remember smiling at her, and that really really pissed her off." Garek felt his face pale. "I said I was a dumb sumbitch, Garek." As you can imagine, she didn't take kindly to that. It took her and me a couple days to figure out the limits of my Semblance. Turned out the effect wore off after about an hour, but I could apply it manually after that. The first time, I thought I'd die, because all that pain from the torture… let's just say that if I'd expressed how badly I was hurt when she was actually hurting me, she might have backed off. That's the problem with pain, Selene. It's not just a bad thing, it serves a purpose."

"Do not touch this, it will damage you. Do not bend so far, you will damage yourself." Selene added helpfully, then took a drink.

"Exactly. And do not break your prisoner."

"Is that how your nose got broken?"

"Nope. That came later. But the problem is, from a torture standpoint, it doesn't help the torturer if they permanently damage the torturee, and if the torturee can control when they feel the pain, it gives them control that keeps them from breaking. And she couldn't just drain my Aura down to the point where my Semblance failed. That probably would have just killed me."

"After a few days, I think we both realized the futility of what was going on there. I was in some strange zone of powerlessness and complete control of my own destiny. She could kill me at any moment, but she couldn't break me. And she knew it. She went from frustrated, to enraged, to thoughtful."

"And then, she did something completely unexpected. She offered my freedom if I would serve her."

Garek stilled. "And you said?"

"I said yes, Grae. What the hell did I have to lose? I lied. She removed my restraints, and had food brought. Had my wounds tended to. Gave me an actual room and clothes."

"And then?" Selene breathed.

"And then, four days later, I got my hands on a sword, and I stabbed your mother in her fat black heart."

The look on Garek and Selene's faces was worth a million lien, Forrest decided. Their eyes were wide and mouths dropped open.

"Yeah. I caught her in an empty hallway, and called her name, and she turned toward me, and I buried a blade in her just up under the ribs and out her back." He shook his head at the memory. "At first I felt satisfaction. I wanted to watch her die." He took a drink of wine. "But I'd never killed a person before. And she was a person, if a terrifying one."

"But she is immortal."

"I didn't know that!" he laughed at himself. "I had her there, one hand behind her shoulder and one hand on the sword buried in her chest, and she was bleeding out in the hallway, and her whole body was shaking and shuddering from the pain." He gazed carefully at Selene, who shuddered, and then Garek. "And it was pain. I learned after. Sure, she heals from any wound, but it's still agony having your insides cut up like that. Her eyes were staring at me in shock and pain. And… I wanted her dead, but I didn't want that."

"So You used your Semblance."

He laughed, slapping the arm of the chair. "Damn right I did. I pulled the sword out, and then I touched her and activated my Semblance. And we both learned something new in that moment."

"What?"

"It takes away pain, Selene." Forrest said quietly. "Not just physical pain."

"Oh…"

"Oh." He took another sip of wine. "The look on her face after I used my Semblance must have been about the same look I had when her wounds began sealing up. She just lay there, propped up on her elbows, and the look of unhinged shock on her face…" He scratched his beared. "I don't know what it was like, you'd have to ask her, but apparently she'd been carrying that emotional pain around so long, and it was so powerful a feeling, that removing whatever that pain was…"

"Her children."

"Yeah. That was most of it." Shook himself. "When I saw her wounds healing, I figured I was a dead man. But what she experienced was enough of a shock that she just stood up, looked at me as if I had turned into something alien, and walked off leaving me there with a black-bloodstained sword in my hand."

"Let me guess, an hour later…"

He nodded. "An hour later, she was at the door to my quarters, begging me to use it on her again. The look on her face was agonized."

"Gods."

"Yeah. When the pain comes back, it's not gradual. It hits like a Goliath. It's a useful Semblance in a life or death situation, or when you need to set a broken bone, or relocate a socket. But it's not always a kind one." He coughed. "I agreed, on the promise that she'd let me go. She agreed to do so… eventually. And promised no reprisal for my betrayal."

"It took her two weeks to come to terms with what she was experiencing. We reached… a sort of understanding. It helped that my Semblance had its own sort of empathy. After it activated, I wanted to care about people's pain. And yeah hers was mostly the loss of her children. It had eaten at her for centuries, I learned, and it had become such a part of her that she no longer had recognized what life without it was like."

"And then you had showed her."

"And then I showed her, and it wasn't a relief, except for that hour when my Semblance was active. It was just resetting the pain back to its raw state every time."

"Gods."

"Yeah. I… started to gods-be-damned feel bad for her." He glanced at Garek. "Not enough to want to stay in that forsaken place, though."

"But you felt empathy. You saw… something of what I see in my mother."

"Yeah. I did. We talked… she tended to want to stay around me when that hour was running. She needed me and loathed me in some ways. I was a hit to an addict." Garek shuddered. "I figured out at some point that she wasn't going to be able to let me go, not like that. And after I understood what the root of her pain was…"

"You offered," Garek said.

"We weren't even sure it would work. And she was terrified both that it would and that it wouldn't. I won't go into detail, but it was awkward as hell, and not what I would call a healthy relationship." He glared at Garek. "Don't look at me like that. I was young, and stupid."

He was quiet for a minute, then leaned forward and touched Selene's face. "But I don't regret it. Especially not now." She smiled a little.

"A month later, Salem's pregnant, and I get a ride back to Vacuo along with a means of communication and the freedom to return as frequently as I want." He looked. "I came for your birth Selene, and I stayed for almost a year that time."

She nodded, making a soft sound in her throat before taking another drink of wine.

"I tried. I really did. Your birth… well I said it softened Salem. A lot. But that place was hard on me. It went directly against everything I was supposed to be. And Salem, as you grew, became more and more protective and possessive. She and I started arguing about what you were and weren't allowed to do. What was safe and wasn't." He laughed. "Every parent has those arguments. Ours often ended up with me bleeding and broken." He pointed at his nose. "That's how I got this one. When it came to Selene's safety, Salem wasn't… probably still isn't… rational."

"No, she is not."

"Well that's a problem, isn't it?"

"Yes. Though she is improving, thanks to Garek and I."

"A relief then." He shifted uncomfortably. "Selene, I'm sorry. I should have tried to explain, but… I was afraid of how Salem would react. I tried to hold on, to be there for you until you reached your majority at least."

"I begin to understand the difficulty, though I missed you. Even an adult wants to know their parent is there for them." He choked a little, eyes glassing. "Can you be?"

He nodded. "As long as you'll have me. As long as you need me."

"Then I accept." She took a deep breath. "Garek, this is my father, Forrest Stonecrop. Father, this is my fiancé, Garek Grae."

"A pleasure to meet you, sir."

"And you, Garek."

"So… is there anything I can do to help you kids with your insane plans?"

"Funny you should ask that… we've been needing a permanent contact in Vacuo. Do you still have any connections there?"

"Well, there's me…"

[A/N] Hope you enjoyed this mostly flashback chapter that tells exactly how Selene came to be, and why her father was not around. BTW Stonecrop is the common name for sedum, a large family of arid climate flowering plants (which seemed appropriate for a Vacuan). And a side effect, looks like they'll have a contact with roots in Vacuo now.

And to reinforce my begging for reviews and such, fanfics that are OC based are hard to get people to read. Your reviews, recommendations, and favorites are the only things that will draw other readers in, and I appreciate the effort. Thank you all.