#Elymus K Pechman

[kkmcshouty]

May or may not have whipped this up a bit ago purely cause I realized I didn't have any current images of K or David when I wanted to post a thing on my instagram story with songs relating to each character (Icarus by Emma Blackery for K [with someone telling him this when he's young] and King by Lauren Aquilina for David [where he'd be the one telling this sentiment to someone else]) and boy did I speedrun this at 2.5 hours

Not much to say otherwise, as for the Soular Flare timeline this would take place somewhere between the accident where K and David got their powers (the colored glasses being a telltale sign) and before Everything Went Wrong (we don't see them together after that....)

Like usual timelapse is below the cut!

[kkmcshouty]

Got smacked with inspiration the other day so this little image happened, it's been awhile since I've drawn K and I swear he's the only character I keep giving new outfits, maybe it's cause I've had him so long, but hey he'll also be the main focus on thursday cause he'll be the last character in the soldier poet king reel trio

speedpaint below the cut!

[kkmcshouty]

Writing Masterpost

So... I’ve started work on a webtoon, no clue what the title is, but ya know what that means? (Well yes I know it means I now have a webtoon to promote but aside from that)

Yep. It means that my fav characters Adie and K (from a story that actually has a title [Soular Flare]) and my second favorite characters Elias, Holly, Taylor and Leo (no I totally didn’t forget the last two names and had to look em up in my files) who live in the same universe and ALSO have a named story (Binary Pair) all of which are supposed to become webtoons are NOT getting produced anytime soon.

If you can’t tell I’m a bit (very) grumpy about that.

So, today (21/05/2022) I have made a clear and rational decision with a completely level head (I currently have a fever of 99.9 degrees fahrenheit) to post the writing bits I found in my documents that include said characters here on tumblr, and all of them shall be linked to this post (and also the webtoon in question should be linked at the top once that gets released)

So yeah, have my shitty writing that quite frankly wasn’t supposed to see the light of day when it was written. Feel free to send in asks about terminology I never explained since I was writing for myself or comments about what your liked or didn’t or questions about things in the world/universe. Spoilers be damned I plan to answer everything openly because I’ve had this stupid story cooped up for almost 6 years now so I figure by the time I publish it people will have probably forgotten.

Without further ado:

(So I’m starting to realize a lot of the stuff I have in my drabbles folder isn’t done, or at least on a neat end so, there’s less here than anticipated, but hey I should update with more soon, also if the link isn’t there that’s cause I’m currently putting it into a tumblr post and you were way too fast, slow down for a minute speedy gonzales [wow I hope that reference didn’t date me] I need to post the stories first)

Dubiously Canon: (these ones have facts that are VERY likely to change or just straight up are an au of sorts but I wrote em cause they were fun and living rent free in my brain)

Visions (series) - Adie

Likely Canon: (these SHOULD stay consistent but lets be real here the gender K’s attracted to seems to change 3 times a year so who knows if any of these facts will still be consistent when this story is FINALLY published)

The General

The General’s Arrival

Elias & K

The Last One Standing

[kkmcshouty]

The Last One Standing

Word Count: 542 Canonicity: Likely Characters: Elymus “K” Pechman Date Written: June 14th, 2022 Date Posted: June 14th, 2022 Content Warnings: Paranoia, survivor’s guilt, general self aimed negativity

Summary: This one is short, mostly because I’m really meant to be doing other things and not writing, but I put my K playlist on for the first time in awhile and this scene wouldn’t leave me alone. In essence though, this scene happens post... well, everything that happens in the main stories. Everything is at peace, K’s defeated his enemies, but a millennia of conflict has lead to a rather concerning mental state now that he’s been left alone.

Writing Masterpost is here

~~~~~

K shut rapidly shut the book he was reading, the clap echoing around the sparsely filled room of this new, and still unfamiliar home. He took a breath to steady himself, then placed the book down on the table next to his chair, then got up.

He went to the back door of the house and stepped out into its yard. The crisp night air blew some of the hair from his face as he looked out upon the beautiful scene before him. He could see the galaxy above as the yard led up to the edge of the mountain, overlooking the nearby city. It was tranquil, remote, peaceful, stunningly beautiful.

It was... quiet.

He grabbed his arm and dug his fingers in, knowing no one was around, but trying to keep himself composed nonetheless, a bad habit. This is what he’d asked for. Somewhere peaceful, somewhere out of the way, somewhere he could... relax. The days here were almost perfect, there was hardly a moment when this cottage home was anything short of picturesque.

Yet somehow, it was so. Damn. Quiet.

He forced himself to sit slowly, naturally, in a way that to any outside observer would seem perfectly normal. The quiet had been great for the first week, hell, the first month was fine, but the more the quiet sank in, the louder the thoughts in his head became. The more unbidden memories played back, echoing moments of the past whose only remaining traces lied in his very mind.

At first doing things had helped. Cooking, cleaning, working. It had worked so well in the past, but now, without a goal to drive him forward, he was lost, and the memories slowly crept back in. Voices of those long since past echoed around him, voicing his own regrets about them right back at him.

He’d hear mother tell him to be cautious of connections, lest they all be used against him.

He’d hear his best friend, Levin, tell him he could have stopped, he didn’t need to reach the top to be happy.

He’d hear his mentor, David, tell him that some things shouldn’t be researched. That some things are better left unknown.

He’d hear his protege, Olivia, tell him that if things were as dangerous as he said, he shouldn’t have shown mercy. He shouldn’t have let them continue.

He’d hear Adie. He... he didn’t even know what they were to him anymore, but he’d hear them, a breath away from his ear, always just out of sight, tell him this was all his fault. That he’d killed them. That if he’d been decisive they’d be alive. That he was the one who’d crafted Adie into what they’d become.

He heard screaming- he couldn’t breathe- he couldn’t-

It didn’t matter if he could or couldn’t. By the time he was breathing normally, by the time he realized he had been the one screaming, it was practically sunrise.

He’d screamed and screamed, and the awful truth of the matter sank into his heart like a knife. No one had come. No one would. They were gone. All of them.

He was the last standing, and at this rate, in this silence, even he didn’t know how long that would last.

[kkmcshouty]

Dying a bit doing character design, so ended up drawing my boy again real quick as a break. Been meaning to do a series of images with each character holding a rose that matches their main color as I love both color and flower symbolism, so yeah each of these will come with an essay

For K what I really love about him and about purple in general is the fact that a nudge to the left or right and it's a cool or a warm color, and I see that in how K behaves, he can be cool and rational or a complete emotional wreck. Flower wise, Purple roses typically mean luxury, elegance, or more royalty as a whole due to the fact that purple was the color of royalty. In this case I really wanted to emphasize the beauty of the rose and how magical it looks, but that hiding a power within, one that comes with the weight of responsibility, one K's had to shoulder for far too long.

Alsoooooo I still can’t find a good way to get timelapses onto tumblr so here, have a link to this post on instagram with the actual timelapse

[kkmcshouty]

Visions - Adie

Word Count: 1003 Canonicity: Dubious Characters: Adeline Colbum (two versions of them in fact), Elymus “K” Pechman, David Alvarez (Note: he’s the one referred to as WLS here, not K) Date Written: August 27th, 2021 Date Posted: May 21st, 2022 Content Warnings: Brief description of a knife, panic, falling from a very high place, and just general unhinged-ness

Series Summary: Visions is a series where past versions of characters meet who they become, for more of the same check out the rest of the series.

Summary: Disclaimer - I use WLS in reference to two different people in this one, the first time is in reference to K, but after Adie wakes up it’s in reference to David who isn’t actually name dropped in this but I love him all the same so I’m putting his name here. Anyway, this is a “what if...?” scenario on what if Adie’s past self, their self uncorrupted by time, were to meet their future self, The General. (For more on The General, click the link to go to the story that’s titled thusly)

Writing Masterpost is here

~~~~~

Adie checked the time on their brand new datapad, 8:01 AM October 13th 2015, also known as both K’s birthday and the day he was to be announced as protege to the WLS. A big day indeed and Adie wanted to see him off, he was practically their brother after all and they were so proud.

Adie snagged a piece of toast and hopped on their hoverboard rapidly zipping around the familiar buildings of their city and through the building that was under construction that while not allowed, they still loved to weave around dodging the construction robots. They had to pause for a moment in a nearly complete office as a larger robot passed through, blocking the hallway.

Adie checked the time once again; 8:06 AM. They were making great time today, normally this took far longer. They hopped off the hoverboard and walked over to the glass overlooking the city, it was so bright and brilliant, bustling and full of life. They loved looking at this scene from high above like this, they knew there were plenty of problems back on the ground, but up here it was like nothing was wrong, like everything was at peace.

Sure they’d thought about doing something about it, but they were just 18, not a whole lot they could do quite yet.

They reached up to place a hand on the glass, and in an instant it seemed to ripple outward, rapidly becoming covered in grime and the view outside turning to one of ruined buildings with plants beginning to reclaim it all. Adie stumbled backward and straight into someone, they spun around to look but they moved too quick and ended up falling onto the floor.

They winced, they definitely hurt something, but there were bigger things to worry about right now, like the fact that the face of the person now standing in front of them was an all too familiar one that they’d normally only see in a mirror, except they looked like they’d been through hell and back, perhaps several times. Adie couldn’t place what it  was but there was also just, something about the way they looked at them that made Adie think that there was something VERY wrong with their double.

This other Adie simply looked at them with cold indifference before muttering more to themselves than Adie, “Hm, a hallucination, a trick or perhaps... reality?” They thought for a moment then everything cold about them seemed to melt away, replaced with the familiar friendly smile Adie knew all too well, “Hi! Need some help there?” They reached out a hand for Adie to take, and Adie hesitantly did, sure that their unease was showing, but not caring when the feel of this other person’s grip made their skin crawl.

The other Adie went to grab Adie’s hoverboard and looked at it for a moment, eyes widening for a moment with sudden realization like something had clicked, though it happened so fast that anyone else probably would have missed it. The other Adie chuckled, and it sounded warm, but Adie could feel it. There was something twisted with this other person and that seemed to become more and more clear with every moment.

The other Adie tossed the hoverboard back over to Adie with a smile, “Nice hoverboard. Custom models are always the best.” Adie simply nodded, wary. “By the way...” The other’s tone stayed even and friendly, but their eyes... Adie practically felt like they were pinned to a wall with a knife at their neck despite this other person being across the room, “...how old are you?”

“E-eighteen...” They stammered out, honestly surprised their voice was still working.

The other laughed, this time not bothering to hide the coldness, “Eighteen, wow.” They moved a hand up to run it through their hair, stopping halfway through, their gaze slightly wild and unfocused, and honestly scaring Adie as their voice got low, “I can’t remember being eighteen. Things must still be good huh? Isn’t the WLS- I mean, Isn’t K’s, protege promotion happening sometime around now?” They practically cackled wildly, any facade of stability now starting to fall away as Adie stepped back, feeling the cold glass behind them.

The other Adie strode straight up to them, and stopping within a hair’s breadth, “Let me give you some advice.” They then slammed their hand into the glass next to Adie’s head and Adie flinched and heard the glass crack but couldn’t bring themselves to move any further as the other Adie leaned into Adie’s ear, “Brace yourself. Things are only going downhill from here.”

With that, the other Adie shattered the glass and Adie fell straight through and into the air, hoverboard in hand but they were still in too much shock to put it on. Who was that? Was it them? But how? Why? What had happened to them? How did they go from who they are now to... that twisted...? Adie closed their eyes, sure they were about to hit the ground.

“-ie! Adie, wake up!” They opened their eyes to see K above them, the WLS a little ways away both looking at them with concern.

“What just...?” Adie’s head and back were pounding like they had actually hit the ground, but nothing seemed to be actually injured.

K gently helped them up, “You got here and suddenly passed out, are you okay?” His eyes were full of concern, Adie glanced at the WLS, K must trust him quite a bit to allow it to show.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, I must’ve descended on my board too quickly or something...” They smiled and put a hand on K’s head to which he protested about messing up his hair like usual, making the WLS chuckle. No use worrying K, he’s got enough on his plate without having to think about some strange vision or whatever that was, but what the other Adie had said... It was hard to say that it didn’t bother them.

[kkmcshouty]

Elias & K

Word Count: 4344 Canonicity: Likely Characters: Elias Dellarobia, Elymus “K” Pechman Date Written: October 8th, 2021 Date Posted: May 21st, 2022 Content Warnings: There’s an implied panic attack, and the existential crisis of being erased from existence but otherwise not much.

Summary: A little known scene that wouldn’t likely appear in Binary Pair (since that’s supposed to release before Soular Flare) but will likely appear in Soular Flare as a transition into events taking place on the planet Terra Tectus and as a reintroduction to Elias since he’s technically from another story. In said scene K takes preventative measures in case things in the fight against Adie go south.

Writing Masterpost is here

~~~~~

The shuttle was set to leave in 3 hours. He watched the others who were assigned this task with him head out to spend the last of the time with family, but Elias stayed in the hallway. He had already said goodbye early, both he and his family were sure if he had said goodbye now as scheduled, his mother and sister wouldn’t have been able to let go, and now, here he was. Standing all alone in a corridor after debriefing with 3 hours to kill.

Great.

He sighed and leaned against a wall; everywhere else in the compound would be bustling and he didn't feel like having to deal with that, so here, in the hallway where there were only empty meeting rooms, was a pretty good place to wait. The worst part about this is that he didn't even have anything to do. All his personal effects had already been packed and all he really had on him was the uniform he was wearing and his com-link. Not much to think about either, he wasn't one for fruitless daydreaming and if he thought about the mission too much and what it means to get put in cryostasis... well, he didn't want to think about that.

He shook his head trying to clear the last thought, when someone tapped his shoulder. He jumped a bit; both bad timing on their part and he hadn't expected anyone to be around either. It took him a second to process who he was looking at but as soon as he realized his eyes widened as he did a mental double take.

Fuck. The WLS just caught him slacking off.

Moment of mental panic, before he realized that the WLS didn't look upset or anything, more concerned, and from the fact that his gaze was pointed slightly down the hallway and not directly at Elias... he was concerned about something that wasn't Elias' conduct.

Before Elias could so much as get a word out the WLS spoke, and it was hushed. "Did the rest of your team already leave?"

An odd question for the guy who is supposed to be running this show, but uh... sure whatever he'll follow along, "Yes sir, they left a few minutes ago to say goodbye."

"Fuck-" Woah Elias did not realize this man cursed, "-whatever just you will have to do come on" and with that the WLS grabbed Elias' wrist and half led had dragged Elias away down a maze of hallways while Elias could not fathom what the hell the WLS was doing, what was so important that he needed Elias' team? and even more so that just Elias 'would do'? If it had been literally anyone else who did this, he would have stopped them right then and there and demanded answers, but this was literally the man in charge of the entire human race, and Elias did not want to so much as dare step out of line here... well, that and also because Elias was sure that his wrist kept going partway through the WLS' hand and it was freaking him out and making him think the rumors that the WLS is a ghost are true.

By the time the WLS stopped Elias was sure that they were so deep in the compound that if he was killed here his body wouldn't be found for quite some time, and frankly he was starting to worry that that was a looming possibility. The WLS let go of him and sighed in frustration, running a hand through his hair as he paced back and forth a short distance away from Elias in this secluded and empty room. He seemed to be debating... something but Elias couldn't tell what. The WLS eventually paused, sighed then turned sharply to face Elias, looking him in the eye and it sent chills down Elias’ spine for no particular reason, he didn’t look any different, and a determined look like that shouldn’t have been chilling but... whatever the reason, he didn’t know what it was.

Despite the look, the WLS faltered a bit as soon as he started talking, Elias made a mental note that the WLS didn’t exactly seem to be very prepared, “Your name is.. Elias right? Elias... Dellarobia?”

“That’s correct Sir.” Honestly Elias was just surprised that he got his last name right.

“Okay. Okay...” He took another breath and Elias was seriously questioning this man’s resolve, “First off, please ditch the formalities, I’m so sick of them. Call me K.” Elias raised an eyebrow but nodded, not like he could refuse, but also, K? For real? He thought that was some sort of code name or honorific that the cults people formed around him used, not what he actually went by. “Secondly... this information cannot leave this room, you can tell your teammates but...” K shifted awkwardly, “...just- just trust me, they’re not going to believe you. Honestly I wouldn’t believe it if this wasn’t how I live.” Elias watched this man ramble and finally came to his conclusion on him.

He was a fucking wreck.

Elias figured he’d humor him but he was seriously wondering how the hell he ran the world, “Understood.”

“Okay, good. Good. So, I really, really hope you will never need to use this information, but... things have been escalating and I don’t know how far things will go.” He froze for a second as he seems to realize something, “Shit, okay uh... lemme just... fuck- the one time I didn’t bring my wrist com...” K seemed to scramble, and eventually pulled out a yellow lined paper notepad and pen with actual ink in it. Elias visibly cringed, but K didn’t seem to notice, “Wait shit if I do it... crap.” K then held out the pad and pen to Elias who gave him a look like he was crazy, which to be fair, Elias was starting to think he was. “Okay you need to write this down, write whatever you want as long as it’s notes you can read, I’d do it but... let's just say in the worst case scenario anything related to me will be wiped, even things I wrote, so this needs to be made by you.”

Elias was this fucking close to calling this moron crazy to his face, but nodded took the paper nonetheless. Even though he sounded crazy, there was no denying this was the WLS, and with the sheer amount of information that Elias knew was restricted to WLS level access, well, it wasn’t too unfathomable.

“Fuck, where do I even start...” K ran a hand through his hair again, “okay... you don’t need to know everything, I’ve seen your file, if you need more just, go talk to the Earth- er Terra Prima historian on Hidden- fuck I mean Terra Tectus. If you need more information talk to them, you should be able to figure out what you need, but it wont actually be written down, I’ve kept it well hidden for two centuries so you’ll need to piece it together based on events, specifically the documents on my rise to and early WLS days, those will be key.” Elias took note, a little startled to be honest to hear that the rumor he was centuries old was true, and he would have reacted more, but he wasn’t used to taking notes like this and the paper was somewhat frustrating to deal with since he was putting too little pressure on the pen.

K paused to let Elias write then kept going, “Okay. I’m sure you’re familiar with the rebel factions, do you know about their leader?”

Elias shook his head, “Seemed like a waste of time to learn something like that.”

Elias didn’t catch it but K had a somewhat relieved smile at his response, “Okay, well, what you need to know is that they’re dangerous. Really dangerous. Their name is Adeline Colbum, also known as Adie, or more commonly by the rebels, The General. While all the factions of the rebellion are slightly different, the one constant is them. They lead them as their united head, and Adie, like me, is older than they look. In fact, there’s only a 3 year age gap between the two of us.”

He paused once again to let Elias catch up, “What makes them dangerous is the fact that they’re unstable, over the centuries they’ve lost their memories from their younger years, lost who they are and their humanity, and have become not much more than an unhinged puppet master bent on vengeance. Currently, they’re only a threat to me because I’m the target of their wrath. Worse yet, if they succeed in killing me, they’re next in line for WLS succession due to old documents and data that I cant change. Once they get the position... I fear that now that I’m no longer their target, they’ll find a new target; everything I’ve made.”

Another pause for Elias, “More specifically, the space program that you’re now a part of. Of everything I’ve done as WLS, the space program is the only thing that I alone created from scratch, so Adie will go after the three colonies on Atlanti- Terra Aqua, Terra Tectus and uh- right, Terra Nova. Your soon to be home, Terra Tectus, is likely the last planet they’ll go after due to its location and difficulty to approach.”

“Wait,” Elias quickly cut him off, “What do you mean ‘go after’?”

K laughed a bit, but it was forced, “They’ll completely overrun the planet, turn people to their ideals before they even realize Adie’s ideals are different from their own. Then they’ll militarize it, and I figure once they’re done with Terra Tectus, they’ll start trying to dominate the galaxy, justifying it in their mind by saying that it’s ‘to keep what K did from happening on other planets’.” He sighs.

Elias finishes writing and hesitates before asking, this is... intense and if K’s telling the truth, which Elias was pretty sure he was, there’s... a lot at stake right now and this seemed like important information, “...what DID you do exactly...?”

K turns away from Elias looking at the ground, “Back in the day... well, let's just say someone close to me got hurt, and I went after every person involved. Adie got caught in the crossfire and saw not only what I was doing, but also that I was in a position where no one could stop me, so they took matters into their own hands. Problem was... that wasn’t me. I wasn’t in my right mind.” K sighs, reaching for an inner pocket in his lab coat, hesitating, but eventually handing a thick folder to Elias. “Don’t go through these unless you absolutely have to. It’s personal research on my condition, the reason I’ve lived so long. Again, if you need more information, give it to the historian, they’ll know what to do, but you might need to help them read it, Terra Tectus isn’t as technical as we are here.”

Elias took the folder, and placed it in the inner pocket of the jacket in his own uniform, he just hoped that it’ll survive the cryo-sleep process, “Understood, but...” he could hear the fear in his voice and he hated it. “What am I supposed to do if Adie gets to Terra Tectus? Especially with how... unbelievable this story is?”

K looked at him apologetically, “There’s likely not much you can do. Personally? I’d run, because if they’ve arrived at Terra Tectus, it’s safe to assume Ear- Terra Prima, and the other two colonies have already been fully compromised, Adie isn’t the type to leave a job, or in this case planet, unfinished.”

Elias swallowed, “Are you absolutely positive there's nothing I can do?”

K looks to the side, “...” he sighs, “ I really do wish I could say yes. There is one other thing you can do, and it’s following the documentation in that folder to replicate my condition, but... take my advice Elias. Don’t. The reasons why don’t matter, this power will cause nothing but pain, and takes more time than you’ll have to control, and the cost of losing control is... grave.” K’s voice dipped slightly at the end, and it was clear he’d lost more than he’d admit, and now Elias could practically feel the file burning a metaphorical hole in his pocket.

“Then why give me this file in the first place?”

“Because ultimately, it’s your choice. I don’t know you well enough to know if you’d become a hero or a villain with this kind of power, but this entire situation was my fault, so I don’t think it’s right to not give you at least a chance to fight back. I just hope you’ll never have to, and that I’ll be able to handle it.” K checked his watch, “Shit. People are going to notice I’m missing soon, okay, give me your notes.”

Elais handed the notepad over and K signed the bottom, then handed it back. “Next to that signature put a note, that if you can’t read it to read the file you have. Because Adie’s won, and you need to prepare.” Elias did as told while K started to head toward the door, but before he left, he looked back at Elias, “Keep that notepad and pen, and write as much about this encounter down as you can, assume you won’t remember it when you wake up.”

Elias nodded but as he watched K leave, he was worried about if cryo-sleep would remove any other memories.

Elias spent the rest of the time before the shuttle took off writing down the encounter in the notebook like K had said to, and when he ran out of encounter, he started writing down K’s appearance, and did a sketch from memory and he was thankful for his photographic memory. He was sure he wouldn’t forget what K looked like but, clearly there was more going on here than he knew so better safe than sorry.

((A/N was surprised that the doodle that went along with this still existed so here you go))

He pocketed the notebook on the inner pocket of the other side of his uniform jacket. After that things were a bit of a blur, there was fanfare, cameras, celebration as he boarded the ship, then sealed him into a pod for the long trip, as he fell into cryo-sleep. He hoped K would be alright, and he won’t have to worry about any of this when he woke up.

-------

When Elias woke up, everyone else on his team was already awake, and he had to suffer through them joking about how he ate too much beforehand back home and put on weight, throwing off the calibrated thaw time. He went to get changed into a new uniform, and as he removed his jacket, he noticed there was something in it.

He didn’t remember putting anything in there.

Wait- why is the fact that he didn’t remember making him panic.

This wasn’t right, something he REALLY wasn’t right. He was forgetting something. He NEVER forgot anything, not since his childhood when he honed his memory, he remembered every detail of every day and there was something missing and he didn’t fucking know what it was-!

Fuck, calm down. He needed to calm down. Go through this logically. Step by step. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Okay. Could someone have tampered with his cryo-pod? No. Any disturbance would have been noted by the main computer, and the only things in its log were events outside of the shuttle, not internally. Could someone have tampered with the main computer’s log? No. Elias was the only one with the password as the Security and Technology head. Could someone have cracked the password? No. it was a 256 digit password which was never written down and only stored in his memory. Even brute forcing it, a password that long and complex would have taken eons.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. He was forgetting something then.

Another deep breath. In. Out. Okay. Wait. When did he start thinking okay so often? He never used that word normally. No. No he is not worrying about that now, one thing at a time. If he was forgetting something, he remembered everything so he should be able to identify the gap by going through what he does remember. By process of elimination since it was in his uniform jacket that was designed for cryo-pod use, it had to be sometime in the last 8 hours before lift-off.

He started at the closest moment, right when he boarded the shuttle and slowly rewinded every sight, every feeling, every thought with meticulous precision, and he quickly found it. Exactly 15 minutes before lift-off, memories were blurry, unstable, he could only remember sounds, the visuals were too blurred to make much of anything out, but he did hear the intercom calling he and his team to the shuttle. He went further and at exactly an hour, his memories cut off altogether. They came back at around 2 hours and 36 minutes before lift-off where he was standing in the hallway killing time after debriefing.

There were 45 minutes of ‘corrupted’ memories, and an hour and 36 minutes of deleted ones. In that time, a thick file, a small yellow linked notepad and an old fashioned pen had ended up in his jacket. He doubted someone had assaulted him, he would have remembered the pain, or the process of falling unconscious, therefore, something... he didnt want to say supernatural.... something... out of the ordinary had happened, that had affected his memories.

He looked at the items sitting before him. The file had the words “CLASSIFIED. WLS ACCESS ONLY.” stamped on it in faded red ink. Which means he ran into someone who stole this from the old archives on Terra Prima or... could the WLS himself have-

Elias doubled over in pain, his head throbbing, just thinking about who the WLS is caused his head to pound like with every heartbeat. He deliberately shut out the thoughts of the WLS as a person, tried just thinking of it as a position... and the pain receded. Elias put his head in his hands and elbows on his knees as he sat down.

That wasn’t normal. Even Elias, a man of Logic, knew that kind of reaction was not a logical one. There was something wrong here, he was missing information. He looked back over at the files, then picked up the notepad. It felt... familiar in his hand. He also felt mildly frustrated looking at it, even though he didn’t know why. He then opened it, and inside was... his own writing? What? He’d never written analog before... he’d never so much as touched a paper since the required classes as a child, so how...?

He set his jaw, no use wondering, the answers were literally right in front of him, written by his own hand, presumably in the time he was missing. He must’ve- no! No speculation just read!

Elias steadied himself and read.

The notes in the beginning were shocking, but relatively easy to read through, whereas when he got to his retelling of the events that happened, every sentence seemed to make his head throb more and more, but he had to keep going, he had to KNOW.

By the time retelling was over he physically couldn’t think straight. There was one more page though, and he would see it through. He flipped the page.

He caught a glimpse of a sketch, and everything went black.

-------

Elias only came to when he heard banging on the door to his quarters, “Elias! You okay in there? We’ve been trying to get a hold of you for a couple hours now, you even missed dinner.” Fuck, it was one of his teammates, was he really out that long? Damnit. Stupid teammate just fuck off he still needed to process everything he’d read- fuck the notebook and file were still out.

“Elias? I’m coming in!” FUCK. Elias rapidly crammed the items under his pillow and tried to make it look like he’d fallen asleep with his arms under the pillow and heat atop it. He wasn’t sure it was convincing but he hoped it was.

Elias faked being groggy and gave the poor guy a death glare, “Do you need something?”

His teammates backed up in the doorway, “Ah- no- I don’t need anything I- uh- I just wanted... to... check on you...?” his voice got quieter as he went on. Good.

“Then go away. The slow defrost upset my biorhythms and I’m trying to reset them.” The teammate just nodded sheepishly and closed the door.

Elias actually wanted to scream, which he couldn’t remember the last time he wanted to do that. Well, actually he could, but figure of speech. Again, he took a deep breath and let it out, then switched gears to focus back in on the information he read. The pain was enough that he hadn’t been able to fully process anything he’d read, but now that his head was clear he could.

He sat there thinking for a minute particularly on everything he had written down that K had told him:

“...let's just say in the worst case scenario anything related to me will be wiped, even things I wrote, so this needs to be made by you.”

“Keep that notepad and pen, and write as much about this encounter down as you can, assume you won’t remember it when you wake up.”

Fuck. K had known this might happen didn’t he? Wait, didn’t he say something in particular about what losing his memory meant...? Elias racked his brain, then put it together.

“Next to that signature put a note, that if you can’t read it to read the file you have.”

Elias fervently pulled the notebook back out and flipped to the page he needed, the one with what should be a signature.

There was nothing but a black bar, like someone had censored the signature.

Shit.

Fuck fuck, what did K say after that?

“Because Adie’s won, and you need to prepare.”

...

Elias felt like he was going to be sick. He could feel himself starting to panic, to hyperventilate. Calm down..! Calm down!!! Fuck! He couldn’t calm down- they were fucked- it was a matter of time- Adie was coming and he couldn’t do anything!!! No one would believe him! This even sounded crazy to him, if he hadn’t forgotten he would have dismissed it himself! He-!

For the second time that day he passed out.

-------

When Elias came to, he shoved both the notebook and the file back in his jacket, and went to eat something, he knew they were landing on Terra Tectus in less than 24 hours, the deceleration that woke him up alerted him to as much. As soon as he had finished he went straight back to his quarters, and pulled open the file.

He combed through it reading and memorizing every detail, there was quite a bit that had been blackened out like K’s signature which Elias assumed meant was something that directly pertained to K. It was actually fascinating research, but the more Elias got into it, the more he realized why K had kept this under lock and key. Soul manipulation, ways to corrupt other souls, almost perfect immortality, strength and speed beyond even fictional superhero levels. A death that erased a person from existence like K... Even ways to charge normal objects with energy to hold a moment or memory within them, but... no way to reverse any of it. There was even a comprehensive list at the end of the document that made up almost half of the entire thing that was just methods that had failed to succeed.

He flicked through the pages and pages of failed methods and noticed a comment K seemed to have typed and forgotten to delete. It was small at the end of the last method, he would have missed it if he wasn't going through in detail, just two words; I’m sorry.

Elias hesitated for a moment but then ran his fingers over the words and froze. He was somewhere else, a large lab, but covered in messy piles of documents, blood and coffee stains scattered about and so many folders labeled with a red stamp that said [FAILURE] and in the center of it all... he couldn't fully make out the figure, it was corrupted and glitchy, but... he knew somehow that it was K. This was K’s lab, a memory of the past. Elias could even see the document on the screen and the two words he’d just touched on it.

K had his head in his hands and was talking- no he was standing and yelling- knocking over a pile of failed files before collapsing on the ground. Elias knew he was speaking but he couldn't make it out, all he knew was the rage, frustration, fear and crushing pressure that K was feeling in that moment. Elias moved to try to put a hand on his shoulder-but the instant it touched K, the memory shattered, and Elias was back in his quarters.

The two words glowed softly purple before fading, Elias tried touching them again, but nothing. He groaned in frustration and put the file away. Damnit K. Why’d you have to involve him in quite literally magic malarkey.

Elias had no real attachment to Terra Tectus, in fact, even though it was to be his new home, he could care less whether it burned or not, after all, it was the most backwater planet compared to the others. They still relied on paper notes. Though now that Elias thought about it, that might be beneficial to him given the conditions of a soul fused death, especially if he decided to undergo the procedure. Which he was starting to think might be his only chance of survival.

[kkmcshouty]

Been busy all day plus I woke up late and now it's really late so I just did a couple chibis today. Adie is pretty recognizable here, especially with the post a couple days ago, but while he looks pretty different, the one on the left is still K! I wanted to do a little drawing of them as kids since those are fun times for the two of them, K would be around 12 here and Adie would be around 17 since there's a 5 year difference. I also tried to scale this up but it didn't look right so small and in the void again they go.

What was I busy with? Origami! I posted it to my story on insta, and you can check that out (within the next 24ish hours from posting that is) here along with the speedpaint for this!

[kkmcshouty]

These daily things need to stop getting out of hand. I got ridiculously caught up in this one and though "oh, I can do a quick animation" then finished just the animated bit 2 hours later. Anyway I make K deal with a lot but I so rarely show his studious side which is a big part of him, taking the time to study his newfound abilities when he was young was such a treat for him (and for me too, actual magic meets science is just so fun to think about). Also a static image version is below the cut.

Want to see the speedpaint? Check it out here on Instagram

[kkmcshouty]

"I never thought the day would come when it would be me fading into a memory instead of everyone else." -K

Gotta love the things immortality can do to a person's perception, anyway,look at me actually posting art. I'm trying to get some simple practice images done every day and this is the first of em and of course it's K, he's my go to default when drawing. Not to mention I think I finally figured out how his story will end.