Archive of Our Own ^beta

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      Estimated Time : Unknown

      Found this journal in my stuff, so I might as well use it to help keep track of whatever I come across in case I gotta come back this way or something. I’d love to fill it with all sorts of silly stuff to help keep my spirits up, but.. It’s a bit hard when you feel like you’re the only person for miles. Whatever happened, it decided to wake me up for some reason, and now I’m just wandering aimlessly.

     I hate that I remember that feeling of ‘waking up’ far too clearly.

      There was this.. gasp—distant, but I heard it. I didn’t know why until I could feel my chest swell with this warm energy, like someone pulled me out of a lake just before I sank to the bottom. This… little orb was in my face pretty soon after I opened my eyes, all crackly and fussing over me. They tried to explain what they were.. But I was too focused on getting my bearings before we got around to introductions. At least I was able to figure out what my name was because of the dumb tag I was wearing.

      The little thing that found me introduced themselves as a ‘Ghost’, and that they were told to help me, or I guess ‘revive us’ from where I apparently died on Earth. It still feels hard to believe, but given I was surrounded by scattered blankets and rotten food inside of a bunker with a faulty door.. There’s really no other explanation. Only problem now is that it doesn't exactly have a name, so we’ve been debating what would be fitting to help kill some time while we travel. There’s still a list we have to narrow down, but we’ve mainly seemed to be liking the name ‘Eodin’ for him. Just feels like it fits the little guy, y’know?

      I hope everything’s gonna turn out fine. Whatever freak event ended up taking place here.. It must have really something. Don’t really feel like theorizing about what could have happened at the second though; we managed to find a little spot to call ours for the night. I need the rest after so much traveling..

      - Cyrin-3

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      Estimated Time : The Beginning of the Dark Ages

      I tried to ask Eodin about what happened, and why I was even ‘woken back up’. He says I’ve been out for a while, and that something called the ‘Traveler’ chose me. Why? Neither of us are really sure, but I’m taking his word at this point, and have just started to move again, eating and drinking anything I can. I’m not sure if it’s all that good of an idea considering I’ve got metal skin and a lot of mechanical stuff going on inside me, but I feel like I just have to. Gives me some energy too, so that’s a plus.

      I’ve seen very, very few people around, and the few I have seen haven’t exactly been the most welcoming to me. Ended up getting killed by one group and that was just awful , so I’ve just left them be. The amount of ruined cities and towns I’ve also found is.. terrifying. Dunno if I really wanna know what happened here anymore, but something tells me that it was way bigger than anyone could have possibly prepped for.

      Somehow, I almost miss hiding away in that stale bunker as much as I felt like it was my own prison. Dunno why, but I just do. That place just gives me the feeling that something is upsettingly wrong, but it’s the only safe place I really know.

      I can’t go back, though. Just a feeling, but I think I’d probably go insane in there somehow.

      - Cyrin-3

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     Estimated Time : The Dark Ages

     I think I found my own hope out here. A tiny, tiny band of humans has let me stay with them; a mother and her child, as well as a trio of friends. They’ve been calling me a Risen, after they noticed my little buddy next to me, and they’ve been more than welcoming to me. Even gave me furs from animals they’ve managed to kill to help me stay warm now that it’s been getting colder—my joints are more than thankful for that. The child’s adorable though; a little boy, I’ve been calling him Wildcard. Dunno why, but the kid’s got a good attitude when he decides you’re cool to be around. Been trying to teach him a few games and jokes I can barely remember, making sure he’s having fun. Kid’s still gotta have a childhood, even if it’s gonna kind of be terrible thanks to whatever this is.

     His mother told me they lost his father a year or so back to something they call ‘Fallen’, and the trio of friends found them a month and a half later, so they’ve traveled as a unit ever since. I’ve been the second piece of hope they’ve had recently, the first being the rumors that another ‘Risen’—his name I completely forget—has a bit of land under his control, so they were all headed towards him when they found us.

     One of the guys admitted they were all hoping that, since I was a ‘Risen’ too, maybe I could help smooth over negotiations; which was he lets us all stay on his land, and we’ll do any domestic work that’s needed in payment. I’m more than a bit uncomfortable with the situation, but what other choice do we have? I mean, it’s either we go to him, or we keep freezing out here. I think we all like the first option better.

     - Cyrin-3

Additional Entry Added

     Didn’t feel like this needed a full new spot, but we’re about half a day out from the Risen’s place? Land? Fortress of scariness? Dunno what to exactly call it. Plan is that I head out there in the morning, and if I’m not back in two days, they leave for another place we heard about on the way here. It’s a small camp set up at the base of a mountain, but it seems like a fairly ok option for them to go if this doesn’t work out. From what we understand, a few other Risen are there running the place—protecting it too—so the odds are better for them to be safe. Should’ve been the first option in my opinion, but since it’s further away, I can see why they’re giving it a shot.

     I hope this place’ll be ok for us.. I’d love to stay with this group. I can’t remember the last time I felt safe—it almost feels like this is the first time. Not that I can remember anything before that bunker, so maybe I’m a bit biased.

     - Cyrin-3

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     Estimated Time : The Dark Ages

     Things went worse than either of us thought. Cyrin wanted me to stay with little Rhys, or Wildcard, but I didn’t listen. I wish I had. We headed off to meet the Warlord, like we planned, and things were fine up until we had a meeting with him. Cyrin-3 introduced herself and then introduced me, calling me ‘Eodin’, which made the Warlord change his stance. He was wearing a helmet, so neither of us could read his expression, but I could tell from his tone that he did not like us being there. He introduced himself as Citan, before inviting us to sit at this large obsidian table he had.

     I wish they said no.

     Things seemed ok, but I noticed his Ghost was staying completely hidden. He never called either of us by our names too; just addressed us as ‘Risen’ and ‘Ghost’. Always felt like he was on edge too, even if he was trying really poorly to hide it. Citan seemed to begrudgingly agree to let us and our group stay, but when Cyrin got up, things turned. There wasn’t even a chance for Cyrin to react before that big table was getting taller and taller, and I realized that he had flipped the table over to crush them. I quickly vanished right before I heard metal crunching and wires sparking. When that table got removed, I hurried back and revived her… right as that monster grabbed me. I couldn’t get away to hide, and his grasp on me was so strong—I thought he was gonna crush me! I didn’t even hear what he said to Cyrin before pulling out a wide-barrelled gun with his free hand and..

     I don’t know what they ended up doing with her body, I can’t get back to her. I can’t find her. Citan put me in some kind of.. clear box up on a shelf, in plain view of that obsidian table. I think he’s using me as a trophy, to show he’s bested a fellow Risen.. I just hope someone strong enough comes around and takes him down, before he kills another innocent Risen…

     …or he finds a way to kill me.

     - Record transcribed from ‘Ghost’ Eodin

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     Estimated Time : The Dark Ages/Rise of the Iron Lords

     I think the Traveler heard me. It took a long time but.. someone finally came. An ‘Iron Lord’, who introduced himself as Felwinter when he had a meeting with Citan. I thought it was going to go the same way as before, but when Citan flipped the table out of anger at whatever the other had said.. I saw something I’ve never seen anyone do. Felwinter used what the Light gave him to jump through the table, kneeing Citan right in the face and breaking his neck, killing him. The Iron Lord spoke to him, or rather his Ghost, before pointing his gun at the Warlord’s body and waiting. When Citan’s Ghost came out and brought him back… he killed the Ghost before killing the Warlord a second and final time.

     I can’t lie, I was terrified when I saw that twin horned helmet of his turn up to look towards where I was. I thought he was going to shoot me too, but he just took the box I was in and… broke it open with some Void type energy.

     “I’ll take you back to the other Iron Lords. Maybe one of them can help you locate your Risen.” That’s all he said to me, just as monotone as when he spoke to Citan. After that, he just started to leave, and I had to catch up. We traveled for what felt like days, before reaching this small settlement. A camp, the very one that we’d been hearing about and considered going to as a second option if things didn’t work out. I wanted to go look for Wildcard and the others, but I needed to get Cyrin back first.

     The Iron Lords.. They’re definitely something. Whether they’re scary or comforting, I just can’t tell. At least they don’t seem like they plan on hurting me.

     - Unfinished record transcribed from Eodin

Combined with another Entry, unclear if they are meant to be together

     Other than Lord Felwinter, only two other Risen have really spoken to me for longer than a greeting. One was Iron Lord Timur, he’s been.. interesting. He pries a lot for whatever information he can get about Cyrin, and seemed a little too excited when I explained she wasn’t human like the rest of them. Between what other research he’s been able to do and what’s written in her entries here, Lord Timur says that she’s probably an ‘Exo’, a remnant from the Golden Age—apparently the number in her name was a ‘dead giveaway’.
A different Risen offered to keep an eye on me when I’m not being hounded for whatever I know. Lord Shaxx, they call him, a Warlord who’s allied with the Iron Lords but refuses to actually join them. He usually invites me to go on patrol walks and chat with him and his Ghost, Callum, plus he seems to be trying his best to help me not feel so alone. I think Cyrin-3 would like him. A very jovial character, though not as mischievous as she is by any comparison.

     I do still spend a good bit of my time with Wildcard though. Boy, has he gotten big! He used to be so small, now he’s almost up to Laiya’s shoulders.. And he still remembers the ‘Starkeeper’ that watched over his family for a time. It’s been so long, but he still keeps an eye out for her, waiting.

     Why did she give him that nickname anyways? ‘Wildcard’. It’s such a random thing… what even is a wildcard?

     - Unfinished record transcribed from Eodin

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     Estimated Time : Unknown

     We’re finally going to go and look for Cyrin-3. Lord Shaxx and Callum even agreed to help me too, since things have started to really settle down around here. Wildcard will be so happy to see her after all this time, and they can meet all of the Iron Lords that helped us be reunited! I can’t wait to show them just what’s all gone on here..

     ..I’ve missed them.

     - Unfinished record transcribed from Eodin