echo-anon

[echo-anon]

Necessary Sacrifice

[AO3]

Did one of my ai-less whumptober prompts with Echo! But I’m posting it here, cause y’know.

Summary: In order to hide who she is, Echo has no choice but to remove one of her unhide-able features. It’s not the worst thing that’s happened to her this life, but it’s still not the easiest

Day 16: Amputation

It is… angsty

—————

Echo stares at herself in the mirror, eyes focused on her now gray horns. It’s too hard to conceal them like the rest of her features, and she needs to conceal herself even more now.

Even if they no longer shine with their original glory, she still loves her horns, and doing this tears her up inside. If only there was another option, another way to do this.

Unfortunately this is the best and quickest solution. Echo grabs the shears placed nearby, picking it up and positioning it around her left horn, right at the base. With a slow and deep breath, she snaps them closed.

Echo barely holds back a yelp as pain shoots through her system, the horn falling to the ground with a loud—to her ears—clatter. She sets the shears down to clutch at the very small remaining of her left horn.

Tears well up in her eyes, but she fights them away, there’s no time for that. Once Echo can push away the pain, she picks up the shears again and puts them around her right horn.

With another slow, deep breath, Echo closes the shears, cutting off her other horn as well. She drops the shears back onto the counter and falls to her knees, her horns now laying on either side of her.

Echo silently starts sobbing despite her efforts to hold them back, it feels like ever since that incident her life has just been falling into ruin.

[echo-anon]

THE COLLECTION IS NOW CLOSED!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated and submitted your works! Writers, it's time to kick back and relax- unless you want to update during the week, that's fine too!

READERS: START GUESSING NOW!

And we've prepared a countdown clock for the reveal, which you can find HERE!

Now, you may be wondering: "How do I report my guesses?" Great news! That's extremely simple.

LEAVE A COMMENT ON THE FIC!

Read it, tell the author what you thought, and then comment your guess on who you think they are! Let's get some good vibes going, here!

That's it! It's as simple as that! If anyone makes any stats posts collating guesses, or any spreadsheets, we'll reblog them here, too! But the easiest way to guess is in the comments below the fic!

NOW, ON TO THE LIST!

It's under the cut for ease of clicking. If you're an author and you're not on here, send us an ask right away and we'll get you on it!

(This list has been scrambled to prevent you from guessing based on posting date. Sneaky, sneaky!)

TheAmberShadow 

greeniix 

Geekord

Aquelon

MawoftheMagnetar (Wrote two fics!)

Darubyprincxx 

shinygaycomputer (medieval_bread) 

JustAnAverageMinecraftEnjoyer

TheDepressedCanary 

codesandstuffs 

ortheusual 

jaz_it_up 

Moonlight22oa 

All54321 (Wrote three fics!)

Cringe_Is_Dead (A_Plethora_Of_Peters)  (Wrote two fics!)

daisycraft 

JellieLand

FinchWritesFic 

EagleWarrior161 

Jos_has_too_many_hobbies

orphancrow (Wrote seven fics! Way to go orphancrow!)

ThatOneGayGuy 

Paranoid_Pug

Genderfluid_bitch

What_Am_I_Pan 

SilverWolf53

EloquentOrNot (Wrote two fics!)

tigerphoenixblaze 

Bee_4

TimeToCommitCrimes 

CrazyCatMeow

EvilRat_SabreSenn (sabrinasenn) 

firefly124 

Leopardmask 

Dopple_Girl 

MyEpicPseudonym 

Enderwoah

partially_planet 

AstronautBeans (Wrote two fics!)

EntropicThyme 

An_ItIts_writes_fics 

Firepowder

magicalfrog

RiceOfThePuffedVariety 

Watch Me Whirl (An_Oni_Mouse) 

KitsunesPawz (Wrote two fics!)

bellsofblue

FuzzyTheNarwhal 

RosethornRandomness 

Beans_McGee 

Nursinggeek

kae_the_minish_bandit 

AFiniteRedwood (Currently posting as quinoa_child, will change accounts during the event!)

zornographic

AzureCake16 

Anachronistic_Cat

MishapenDear 

Schneefink (Wrote two fics!)

bordanbee (Wrote two fics!)

AshesIntheWritten (Wrote three fics!)

musicaltvbooks (Wrote three fics!)

SentientMango (Wrote two fics!)

NekoDere07 (Wrote two fics!)

CutePluto 

xCa1iber (Wrote two fics!)

Wow, that's a lot of authors! But there's a ton of fics, too!

READERS: START GUESSING!

[echo-anon]

The Start… Again

Chapter 1

Since the collection is out, time to post the works!

↸ᒷᔑℸ ̣ ⍑ ᒲᒷᔑリᓭ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ⊣ ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ

~~~

Grian dives into the ravine, dread brewing in his gut. He committed to retracing his steps to make things simpler, but now he realizes it was just to prolong the inevitable. He isn’t ready to face Scar yet, not after everything he did. He starts killing fish, knowing that the time is slowly ticking down.

Grian shoves the fish into a furnace, trying to keep his expression neutral. He doesn’t need them to think he’s crazy for acting weirdly. Since apparently no one else remembers that they’ve done this before.

“Hello!” Etho and Joel say, almost in sync.

“Hello,” he replies, forcing a smile as he watches them slide down the bottom of the ravine.

“Oh, fish!” Etho says as Grian returns to killing more of them. “Excellent idea, Grian.”

“Have you found your soulmate yet?” Joel asks, looking down at him.

“Not yet,” he replies, tense. It’s technically true. He hasn’t seen Scar in this timeline yet. “Whoever I’m with is desperately trying to get me killed.” Which Grian kinda deserves after what he did to Scar last time. Almost as if his thoughts summoned him, Scar surfaces just in front of him, gasping for a breath.

“Are you sure it’s not Scar?” Joel asks, laughing a little.

“Scar, have you been taking big chunks of damage?” Grian knows this doesn’t go anywhere, but he can’t help but try.

Scar gives him a look for a moment, before shrugging. Joel hits him as a test, and Grian feels a faint pain in the same area. He takes a shaky breath as he watches Scar swim after his allay, zoning out of everything else.

He zones back in as Joel swims into his view, “here, Grian, I’ll test it for you.” This punch is a bit harder than the last, “did that hurt, Grian?” At Grian’s silence, Joel takes out his axe and swings it. Grian flinches and lets out a pained shout. Joel only laughs, “are you actually linked?”

Grian doesn’t respond, only staring as Scar still chases the allay. He doesn’t know how to deal with this. He has to tell Scar, of course he does, but he has no idea how to do it. Ideally it would be alone, so once they split off from Joel and Etho, he’d do it.

He’s snapped out of his daze from Joel shoving him, who gives him a brief questioning look before speaking, “the reason he took a lot of damage, by the way, is when I hit him with my axe to annoy the person he’s paired with.”

“I nearly died!” Grian exclaims, still very irritated at that. Although, it’s not like Joel was the only one casually playing with lives. At least he didn’t kill Scar, unlike Grian did with him.

“Yeah, he said he got two hearts,” Joel replies, unaware of Grian’s inner turmoil. His focus changes to where Scar is climbing the side of the ravine, “what’s he doing?”

Much to Grian’s surprise, Scar continues climbing the mountain, not even looking back. The dread worsens, this didn’t happen last time. “I’m going after him,” Grian says, immediately swimming to the other side of the ravine to try and catch up with Scar. He ignores anything Joel or Etho say. Scar’s already up the other side of the ravine when Grian reaches the other side. He can’t help but be impressed.

By the time he makes it back up the cliff, Scar was already trying to give the allay something. “Scar, can we talk?”

To his surprise, the other flinches. There’s a brief pause before he turns around, a bright smile on his face, “hello, Grian!”

It looks fake, which makes him tense, but he still repeats, “can we talk?”

Scar turns back around, “I’m in the middle of something.”

Grian takes a deep breath, “Scar, please.”

There’s a long pause, long enough for the dread to return full force, enough for him to consider why Scar’s acting differently. When Scar goes back to following the allay Grian speaks again, “I’m sorry.”

This causes him to freeze again, turning around to fully face Grian again, “what?”

“I’m sorry,” he repeats, “for- for everything.” Scar stares at him in astonishment, so he continues, “I was a horrible soulmate to you. And… I want to make it up to you, I’ll do whatever I can to do so. Or-“ Grian swallow, “or you can tell me to screw off, that would be fine too. Just- just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.”

Scar stares at him for a long time, taking a good while to get over his shock. When he does, the edge in his voice has lessened a smidge, “are you really sorry?”

“Very, very, much so,” Grian says, earnest.

Scar glances away, thinking, “we should stick together for safety.” He pauses, “we’ll continue this later, I need to get my allay.”

“R-right,” Grian murmurs, taking it as the dismissal it is. He turns around and returns to the ravine’s edge. He doesn’t jump down, wanting to wait for Scar still. As he waits, his communicator buzzes. He takes it out curiously, but freezes as he reads the message. Somehow he forgot that they would be dying soon.

“What is it?”

He jumps a little, turning around to see Scar, his allay beside him. “Tango died,” he answers simply.

“Ah, right.” Scar’s quiet for a moment before continuing past him, heading towards the bridge. Grian follows him, just as quiet. They dive into the water together, swimming over to Joel and Etho when they resurface.

“Did you see?” Joel asks the moment he notices them.

“Yup,” Grian replies. He grins, “we’re not the first ones out!”

“Well, of course Etho and I aren’t,” Joel replies confidently, “you two however…”

Scar gasps, mock-offended, “I bet we’ll survive longer then you!” Grian shoots him a look, trying to silently tell him to be cautious. His soulmate ignores him.

Etho raises an eyebrow, “you know?”

“Of course I do,” the pointed tone leaves just as quickly as it comes. Scar grins, although Grian can see that it’s just a facade, “what should we do next?”

[echo-anon]

A Silent Observer

Summery: Echo takes a look around the speakeasy, curious about the place she’s found herself in.

AO3 Link

~~~~~

Echo sits in the corner, watching everyone interact, talking loudly or in hushed tones. It doesn’t matter either way, she hears it all the same. When she first heard of a speakeasy for superheroes she was… intrigued, to say the least. Suspicious too, but mostly intrigued. With how quietly they were talking, it was clear that it was intended for secrecy.

She takes a sip of her drink, taking in everyone individually. There is a huge variety of people here, hybrids and oddities alike. Some look vaguely normal, and others… well, Echo has her concerns, that’s for sure. Especially the person who has what seems to be a fishbowl over their head. They… well, she has no idea how that works in the slightest. Of course, a couple of others have strange appearances too, but she’s not here to judge. Who knows what happened to them before they came here, maybe it was as life-altering as hers.

Echo stands up, pushing away the memories before they even return. As interesting as listening can be, she should probably talk to others here, she could learn something much more fascinating that way. Her original path takes her towards the barkeep since he probably knows the most, but a passing conversation catches her interest.

With only slight hesitation, Echo walks over to them. A good starting point here would be joining people who are newer as well. They might not be very knowledgeable of this place, but they could know of things outside of here.