#ren cormander archival intern

[eviltoxicmosssauce]

Meet Ren! They were hired as an intern post-Prentiss in order to keep Jon from chewing up the furniture and/or stalking his coworkers. Unfortunately Elias forgot to hire someone who had any qualifications whatsoever aside from being touched by At Least one of the fears (and also a little bit gay) so they're not having the best time.

featuring @cosmicisbored 's oc Collin because i love him

I WOULD LOVE ASKS. I HAVE SO MUCH LORE FOR THEM YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. SOOO MUCH LORE

[little-watcher]

What's going on?

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

vi cs… h e ra n aw ay. a nd it s al l m y fa ult

[laertesthelocalstranger]

Ren is filing stacks of statements in the Archives when there's a familiar cadence of knocks on the door.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Laertes doesn’t even wait to finish knocking before blipping in, dangling his feet off a desk and disrupting his fair share of papers. He mostly just wanted to prove to that one anon that he still did pop goes the weasel stuff, anyway.

“Hiya, Ren.”

They look different than last they met. Both in that he seems like the version of Laertes that they know, and that she got her legs back- if not all of her pieces. Some sharp and heavy pendant has replaced the old eye joke, something that spins like a compass and doesn’t quite make sense when Ren tries to look at it.

[casandaxel]

"Honey, I'm home," Ren calls, dry amusement in their tone. They set a bag of groceries down on the table.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Cas got up from the couch, where he was playing with the increasingly bored Smungle now that the Void didn’t have the energy. He walked over and started helping Ren put everything away. Cas did the drawers and cupboards while Ren worked on the fridge and freezer. Ren enjoyed a game of freezer Tetris. Cas did not. “Hey. How’d your day go?” He asked.

[child-of-the-vast]

The space between dimensions is thin, in their apartment, as if someone had just passed through it. Based on the fog still clinging to the floor, the Lonely is close by. He could almost touch it.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Orion can feel it, in the way the fog swirls around their feet and the cold seeps into their bones. They cautiously step forward, looking for some way to cross. He reaches a hand up and places it on the closest wall-it seems like a long shot, but anything is fair game. He gives it a gentle shove- seeing if it’s got any give.

[the-fog-isnt-real]

The figure sitting alone at the round coffeeshop table doesn't seem familiar at first, not until Geist does a double take. It's Ren, hunched over some sort of notebook and writing in a careful, practiced hand.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Geist stops next to them, coffee in hand.

"oh, um, hi!"

After last time, it feels almost odd to meet them in such a mundane context. The two of them might as well be normal, clueless humans.

And - just like a human who has never had fog clouding their mind and telling them not to care about what others think - she stands there, hesitant to sit down unasked.

[residentsofhollowville]

Marc. I'm told you're to thank for getting part of Laertes out.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

I am, yes. What's it to you, Institute boy? You a friend of theirs?

[nobodys-soldier]

Ren is wandering the streets of London, aimless. They can't stop thinking about the music box. Can't stop wishing they'd managed to figure it out.

They pass under an almost unnatural shadow, the tension bleeding from their shoulders as they pause for a moment to just let it engulf them.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

A man stands there, a stranger in the dark. The shadow could be his, or one of xers friends, or maybe just Rowan xemself. There’s no substantial difference anymore. Hadn’t been for a long time. He takes comfort in that.

He blinks in surprise as somebody walks by, pausing along their way to step into his bubble of quiet, and stand uncomfortably close to him in this little hollow he’s created. It’s not like they could see Rowan before. But he hadn’t really thought that through.

“Um…hi?”

[y0ud0n0tkn0w]

...You're an avatar of the Dark, yes?

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Who says I am?

... Fine, I guess you already know anyways. Yup, I am. Why? And who are you?

[eviltoxicmosssauce]

martin chill out they don't want your man

[architecture-lover-ash]

When Ash pulls up outside the building, Ren is standing outside, holding something bundled in their hands. They give a small wave as Ash steps out of their car.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Ash gave Ren a smile and a little wave back in greeting as they walked up. They were holding the book in their hands, but kind of awkwardly away from their body, as if it might explode or something. They didn’t really understand what Leitners… well… do.

“Hi Ren! What’s up? What do you have?” They point to the thing Ren is holding.

[laertesthelocalstranger]

Ren hasn't sent a response to the gift basket, and Laertes is starting to worry. Maybe they'd decided she was right about the seam rippers after all, maybe- but no. They wouldn't do that, not after everything. Probably.

She's still wearing the necklace Ren had let her borrow after the Juniper incident - the same one they'd clipped around her neck in the Theater, the small silver hand with the closed eye on the palm. He hadn't had a chance to return it yet.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Laertes hadn’t thought Ren would respond. They’d given up by now on trying to take care of them by means of reaching out, they know the Lonely doesn’t work like that- so they’re praying that giving Ren the tools to take care of themself will have been enough.

…Cas is their friend, too, though, right? And sure, they’d had asked her not to visit them, but Cas is still free game! So what if he shares the same apartment as the loved one Laertes is increasingly panicking about? That’s just a coincidence, obviously.

They don’t knock. Laertes never does. Instead, he blips onto the arm of a chair in the living room. Or at least, he’d been aiming for that- he somehow ends up standing on the ceiling of the bedroom instead.

[casandaxel]

Ren is tinkering idly with a half-disassembled clock, the clicking of their tools the only sound in the apartment other than the quiet chatter of Cas's reality TV show.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Cas was sitting on the couch, barely paying attention to the show, mostly watching as Ren worked on the clock. He was happy to see them go back to their hobby, after several months avoiding it because of what happened in the theater. He didn’t understand it, but he also didn’t understand the reality television he always watched.

[archivalassistantriaan]

I don't mean to freak you out, but, uh. Worms.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

i didnt come in to work today, what do you me-

oh. oh shit.

[the-fog-isnt-real]

Hello.

I believe we met before.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

oh, it's you!

so i was right about you after all. to some extent, at least.

[child-of-the-vast]

Hey.

@ren-cormander-archival-intern

Hey Ren. Uhm. Are you back home?